Xie Yao Quan on cost of living crisis

The debate in Parliament on cost of living pressures is important and should be conducted accurately and objectively without politicising the issue, said MP Xie Yao Quan on Tuesday (Nov 7). He said the GST increase should not be “made the scapegoat” for inflation, especially when the Government has provided subsidies and assistance packages to fully offset the impact for low-income Singaporeans and delay the impact by at least five years for most households. He said Singapore will inevitably be affected by global market volatility as it is a small country and imports its raw materials and goods. To counter this, the Government has a major weapon in the Singapore dollar. However, the public can also take a prudent approach to spending, he said. Another factor in higher costs is higher domestic wages, but increasing the salaries of low-income Singaporeans under the Progressive Wage Model is an important policy, Mr Xie added. He also said it is responsible of the Government to raise prices to maintain a high quality of public services whose costs have been hit by inflation.