Tag Archives: Ministry of Finance

Our reader Justin shares his views about who could be our next PM following the news of the cabinet reshuffle.

Our contributor went to Giant at Sembawang Shopping Centre to buy some items like frozen stuff, baby stuffs mainly food and drinks. When he tried to make payment using the Budget2020 Grocery Vouchers which were issued by the Ministry of Finance (MOF), the cashier said he could not use the vouchers for the full transaction.

A contributor has shared some interesting calculations for Budget 2020. In Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat's round-up speech on debate on the Fortitude Budget in Parliament, he revealed that Singapore is "committing almost $100 billion, or close to 20 per cent of our GDP, to our Covid-19 response". Once the PAP increases GST from 7% to 9%, our contributor estimates this should bring in an estimated extra 0.7% GDP per year. So in order to cover the money spent on the Special $100 billion Covid19 Budgets, our contributor suggests that the government will need around 28.5 years to claw back this amount. Could this mean that the PAP has a lot of extra in our reserve and they don't really need the extra 2% GST to begin with?

Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) member Fadly Azad wrote on his Facebook about Budget 2020. While Singaporeans should be thankful for the cash payouts, he reminded Singaporeans that the money handed out by the government actually came from taxpayers. Remember that one way which the government gets this money is by taxing us, and "whatever they give you now they will take it back sooner or later". With the General Elections looming closer, he calls for Singaporeans to vote wisely. We can either choose to vote in a government who cares more about money and treats its people as digits, or vote in a government that is more concerned about our welfare and well being.

On 19 April 2020 the POFMA office said "several online posts" had made false statements that Temasek Holdings Chief Executive Ho Ching had an annual salary of "around S$100 million". Minister of Finance Heng Swee Keat instructed four correction directions to be issued. One of those four include People's Voice Party (PVP) chief Lim Tean for “sharing the falsehood on his Facebook page”. Politician Lim Tean has shared that he will be challenging this latest POFMA. He questions the basis of using POFMA over an article when the truth or real information is not revealed. His view is that POFMA is being used to silence PAP critics and free speech.

In his ministerial statement today in parliament, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong continued to address the accusations leveled against him and his government.

‪We’re starting #‎SGBudget2017 with a call for public feedback! ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Here are 8 ways to share your ideas and suggestions

MOF and MND issued a joint statement in response to AHPETC’s media release following a parliamentary debate on Monday, 17th August. AHPETC has simply misquoted DPM Tharman, and attributed to him statements he did not make. DPM Tharman did not make any statement on whether AHPETC could fulfil its obligations if the MND grant “is paid in entirety into AHPETC’s Sinking Funds”. Further, he did not refer to AHPETC’s sinking fund obligations for FY14/15, i.e. ending 31 Mar 2015.

In a clarification posted on Thursday, the Ministry of Finance says there is “no basis” to claims made by some online websites that the Government will raise GST after the next General Elections. The MOF said that online rumours claiming that GST will be increased to 10% were "inconsistent with what the Government has recently stated”.

The obfuscation just keeps pouring in. In a ST report on July 9th 2014, the Ministry of Finance revealed the $5b in capital injection into Temasek came from proceeds from the Singapore Government Securities (SGS), as well as government budget surplus and the proceeds from government land sales. The Ministry also told the ST that “the capital injection did not include proceeds from the Special Singapore Government Securities (SSGS)which are instruments that the CPF Board uses to invest Singaporean’s CPF savings. In other words, Temasek does not manage any CPF monies, an MOF spokesperson reiterated”