The only way is up...

Today's ST headline news:

"Tne Goods and Services Tax (GST) will go up from 5 to 7 per cent to pay for more government spending to help the lower income."

Details of the news report is in this blog.

At first it appears nonsensical to me...why are we slicing the flesh off the poor first and then give it back to them later? Why can't we just tax the rich or create a tier based tax? But then again, tier-based consumer tax is probably too complex (heard Malaysia does have that, but I cannot confirm) and to just tax the rich will scare them off perhaps?

What the govt said seems to make some sense though "..in a global climate of highly competitive taxes, Singapore cannot afford to raise direct taxes to meet its spending needs - so indirect taxes must go up".

So no choice but to tax everyone in Singapore who are spending lor ...and then hor through some government programs/initiatives/whatever, try to identify who are the really poor people and give some of the money back to them.....provided some of them don't jump down the MRT track/HDB flat/Kallang River/any-other-kill-yourself-place first.

Incidentally, I read somewhere that there were reports of growing number of millionaires in Singapore...and last saturday's Today newspaper even reported that there is a record number of people buying Lamborgini and Ferrari. Damn, I wish I know a friend who drives a Ferrari....