Workers' Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh has kept up his focus on the People's Action Party's (PAP) decision to increase the GST in 2023 and 2024.
"When the PAP loses votes and seats to the WP, it has to take corrective action. It will think twice of even three times, before further raising GST or implementing other policies that people object to," said Singh.
He added that at least, the PAP "will consider the timing of their policies more carefully."
"When the PAP loses votes and seats to the WP, it has to take corrective action. It will think twice of even three times, before further raising GST or implementing other policies that people object to," said Singh.
He added that at least, the PAP "will consider the timing of their policies more carefully."
Category
š
NewsTranscript
00:00After COVID, there was a political window to defer raising GST and give Singaporeans some breathing space.
00:16But when the Workers' Party questioned the PAP in Parliament during the budget debate this year,
00:23the Prime Minister responded to my speech asking, how did the PAP turbocharge inflation?
00:33Doesn't he know?
00:35The Monetary Authority of Singapore, which is under the Prime Minister's office, told Parliament in 2024
00:43that a GST hike could increase inflation by up to 40%.
00:49Isn't that turbocharging?
00:53The real tragedy is the PAP had enough fiscal room to avoid making things worse for Singaporeans.
01:02For this past parliamentary term, we know that the government had a surplus of more than $14 billion.
01:09With such a surplus, will the PAP now have the courage to admit that the decision to raise the GST in 2023 and 2024 was poorly timed?
01:23I said in Parliament that only the PAP can answer to Singaporeans why it raised the GST when it did.
01:35We are still waiting for a sensible answer because all the surpluses for this term, as per our constitution, have been locked up in the reserves and cannot be used for current spending.
01:50After the PM questioned where the turbocharging on inflation was, one of his ministers said,
02:00that we can debate about the best time to have a GST hike.
02:05But my fellow Singaporeans, we do not need to debate this.
02:10A political party which claims it has the back of Singaporeans should not worsen cost of living pain by increasing GST when inflation is already raging.
02:20The political pressure that it faces from elected workers' party MPs is not enough for now.
02:33So you might reasonably ask, if workers' party MPs were not able to stop the GST increases, why elect us?
02:42Let me give you two reasons.
02:43One reason is this.
02:47The PAP cares deeply about its percentage of votes and the number of seats it wins.
02:54Vote share and seats are how PAP politicians judge each other.
02:59These are the PAP's KPIs.
03:02You as the voter can tell the PAP what you want by voting for the Workers' Party.
03:07When the PAP loses votes and seats to the Workers' Party, it has to take corrective action.
03:18It will think twice or even three times before further raising the GST or implementing other policies that people object to.
03:28Or at the very least, the PAP will consider the timing of their policies much more carefully.
03:34The Workers' Party is not naive, nor are we populists.
03:39We are a party that does its homework.
03:42We know that Singapore will have rising expenditures in healthcare and increased HDB subsidies to finance HDB's deficit.
03:51But who should determine how future spending should be funded?
03:55Not the PAP on its own.
03:58It should be Singaporeans.
04:04ŃŃŠ²Š¾ prohibition.
04:12ļæ½
04:17You
04:22Harris
04:23How do I do it?
04:24How do you pay me for discounts?
04:25How do I do it?
04:26Not the PAP?
04:27How do you pay me for it?
04:29Well, as I want to enter the PAP's and most of you, that we I use it.