Still Moving On…

Something else decided to move on too… something that we are very used to see in our receipts. Indeed Goods and Service Tax has decided to change its number to 7%.

Economist has likened the raising of GST to 7% to first making a person sick, then trying to heal the person. The reason is because by raising the GST, the one who suffers most are the low-income group.

When GST was first introduced, everybody make a big hoo-ha but after awhile they accepted it. Then when it raised from 3% to 4% to 5%, other than “panic” stocking, more complaints, Singaporeans did nothing much. Soon we got used to seeing the 5% GST in the receipt.

And now GST decided to move to the 7% mark. Now we have blogs to comment. Now we have forums to vent. Now we have more talkshows to voice out. Now we have more Generation Y people who are affected because we are no longer the teenagers whose expenses were paid by our parents many years ago. We have grown up and are now paying for our expenses.

I’m indeed curious how Singaporeans would react to this news this time. Will there be a different reaction compared to April 1997? Are we going to complain that GST should not raise or are we going to accept that this is required for growth. Is this helping the lower income group?

Seriously, who knows? Every action has a reaction, thus it might be good for Singapore, and it might also be bad for Singapore. What is confirmed though is GST has decided to move on. And it will announce its confirmed moving date on the 15th February 2007. Guess it wanted to celebrate its Valentine day as the fondly remembered 5% GST.