MPs say Budget is bold and decisive
By S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 22 January 2009 2152 hrs

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	Special Report • Singapore Budget 2009

SINGAPORE: Budget 2009 is bold and decisive - that is the general feeling of Members of Parliament.

Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Thursday unveiled a massive S$20.5 billion plan in the Budget to help Singaporeans keep jobs and viable companies stay afloat as Singapore grapples with its worst-ever recession.

Mr Tharman noted that many households this year may face reduced incomes, because of lower bonuses or wages and some pick-up in unemployment that is inevitable in the recession.

To help households, the government will double the GST Credits that households will receive in 2009. Each household will get an additional payout of GST Credits, on top of the one that they will receive in July. The additional GST Credits will be paid out on March 1.

"By doubling the GST Credits, that will provide a relief to many households, especially the middle and lower-income households," said Dr Teo Ho Pin, Mayor for Northwest Community Development Council (CDC).

He added: "Over the last couple of months, we have seen an increase of 20 to 30 per cent of job seekers coming for help. We are expecting more after Chinese New Year and we are very concerned about the residents coming to look for jobs and not enough jobs to replace them. At Northwest CDC, we are putting half of our job team to help residents find jobs."

To sustain jobs for Singaporeans, the government will introduce a Jobs Credit, which will encourage businesses to preserve jobs as much as is possible in the downturn.

Under the scheme, the government will provide every employer with a cash grant to reduce their costs of employing Singaporean workers during the crisis.

The scheme could not have been more timely. Josephine Teo, NTUC's assistant secretary-general, said: "Our industrial relations officers on the ground have already started working with all the management partners.

"On a day-to-day basis, we are already talking to them to send their workers for the SPUR programme. So this gives us an additional tool to talk to companies to persuade them to allow the workers to keep their jobs."

MPs also support using the national reserves to help workers preserve their jobs during the economic crisis.

Indranee Rajah, MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC, said: "Our whole fiscal policy since independence has been about fundamentals and setting aside something for rainy days. In past years, during Budget debates, there have always been calls for 'use the reserves, use the reserves'.

"The answer has always been: 'We need (the reserves) for an extraordinary time and not now'. In this budget, this is an extraordinary time and this is something that is thought of and planned for years ago... this is the time it is needed."

While job security has been addressed in the Budget, some felt more could have been done in other areas.

MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC, Inderjit Singh, who is also the chairman of Government Parliamentary Committee for Finance and Trade & Industry, said: "We did not do enough in the area of cost reduction and this is a very urgent issue.

"Freezing government charges alone was not sufficient. We could have reduced and also looked at other initiatives to help companies reduce their costs."

For Michael Palmer, MP for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, he said he "would have liked to see some rebate or suspension in GST for essential household items".

With the Budget Speech delivered, MPs will now be busy gathering feedback from their residents and the business community. Their views will be shared when Parliament debates on the Budget on February 3.

Meanwhile, union leaders called the Budget "forward-looking" and "satisfactory, given the global conditions". They also said the Budget signalled the government's commitment to help companies and workers.

Speaking to about 100 union leaders, labour chief Lim Swee Say said the Budget went some way to solving the economic woes. But workers will have to do their part as well if they want to see long-term results, said the secretary general of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC).

"We watched this Budget 2009 with a lot of anxiety. What came out from this Budget, in my view, far exceeded what we can expect from any government," said Mr Lim.

- CNA/ir