Singapore Democrats

[quote]Long working hours, far exceeding the stipulated 44-hour work-week , has become the norm. Also it’s not uncommon to see our workers holding more than one job to make ends meet. [/quote]
But some can take 5 weeks paid leave to go France and do French cooking courses.

Cooking up the holiday spirit

January 6, 2009


By Tan Yong Soon

For a holiday with a difference, a civil servant learns to cook at the famous Le Cordon Bleu in Paris with his family

With a mischievous twinkle in her eyes, the young Indonesian woman asked me: ‘So, are you having fun?’

It was end November, in the second week of my basic culinary course at Le Cordon Bleu Paris, the famous cooking school. During a short break between classes, I told her I was there with my wife and son for the fun of it. We were not preparing for careers as chefs or planning to open a restaurant. But my body language showed signs of fatigue and weariness, not those of someone who was having fun.

I decided to attend the culinary course in June last year. My 20-year-old son Yanqiang had discussed with my wife Cher Ling, a senior investment counsellor at a bank, what he wanted to do between early November, when he would finish National Service, and August this year, when he would begin his studies at Brown University in the United States. He wanted to spend the time meaningfully.

Cooking was always one of the activities he considered. He had been interested in patisserie, mostly in eating, but also baking occasionally.

We found out that Le Cordon Bleu Paris runs intensive courses in culinary and patisserie from mid-November to December. These are the regular three-month classes they run but compressed into five weeks, with no loss in content.

To my surprise and theirs, I told them I would sign up for the course with them. ([b]Taking five weeks’ leave from work is not as difficult as one thinks. Most times, when you are at the top, you think you are indispensable. But if you are a good leader who has built up a good team, it is possible to go away for five weeks or even longer.[/b])

[b]It would be quality family time for the three of us.[/b] My daughter Yanying, 23, would join us in Paris in our last week, since she could not take such long leave because she had just started working.

My hobby is not cooking. I do not even use the oven in my kitchen. My cooking skills are limited to simple Chinese dishes, such as stir-frying vegetables and steaming fish, which I learnt as a student in England and have hardly practised since. And while I do enjoy French cuisine and wine, my favourite food is local hawker fare.

But signing up for the intensive course would get me out of my comfort zone. Little did I know how uncomfortable it would make me. This was not a lesson where you attend a demonstration, practise a little and then sample the food with some wine.

Sore body, cuts and burns

The basic culinary course comprises 30 demonstration lessons, each followed by a practical. Each lesson lasts three hours. Including theory lessons and a visit to the market, it means every day there are three lessons – two demonstration and one practical, or two practical and one demo. It means 8.30am to 6.30pm almost every day, with an hour for lunch.

At the end of my first week, my body was sore, not counting the burns and occasional cuts on my hand.

Mentally, it was also challenging. The restaurant kitchen is a very stressful place.

On the first day, a Dutch classmate told me he had read in the British papers that in July last year, a Chinese man attending Cordon Bleu London held up his class with a knife when he failed his basic culinary course.

He had used up his savings to enrol in the course and was greatly distressed that he could not graduate, and his career as a chef had been put in jeopardy.

Sceptical, I decided to Google the incident. Instead, I found a Daily Telegraph report from June last year about a trainee of French Algerian descent who had threatened to kill himself with a kitchen knife after learning he had failed the test in the intermediate course at Cordon Bleu and was denied a second chance.

So this was not going to be a piece of cake.

The French are very serious about their cuisine, to the extent of reportedly wanting it listed by Unesco as part of the world’s cultural heritage.

The chefs at Cordon Bleu, which has been teaching French cooking skills in Paris since 1895, are excellent. They teach by personally cooking the dishes and explaining the finer points as they do so. At the end of each lesson, the food is presented to the class. Students quickly photograph the dish, before it is apportioned out to them to sample.

One student asked an instructor what he could expect to do after graduating, or what return should he expect from the investment in the school fees, which are not cheap.

Brutally honest, the chef said that even graduates who had gained the diploma (that is, passed the basic, intermediate and superior courses) would have to start from the lowest rung in a restaurant kitchen and work their way up.

How far and fast they go will be up to their performance and dedication, and whether they are lucky to have a good chef to mentor them.

Hectic and strict

Who would enrol in such a course? The intensive course is not too popular as it is extremely hectic and does not allow you time to enjoy Paris.

An American architect in his 50s had signed on for the full diploma: basic, intermediate and superior, and will be in the school until June this year. He cooks in his spare time and wants to cook professionally for clients.

A 45-year-old Dutch chemist wanted a break to think about his mid-career options. A Spanish medical doctor wanted to hone her cooking skills. There were also others who aspired to become chefs.

The school was very strict about attendance and punctuality. You cannot be late for class for more than 15 minutes, whatever the reason, or you will be marked absent. If you miss the demo, you will not be allowed to do the practical. Miss more than six lessons and you are out of the course – the fees are not refundable.

And there would be no chewing of gum in the classroom and kitchen, and no smoking within the building.

Brutal stress of Michelin stars

All practical lessons are assessed. These make up 45 per cent of the final score. A written test towards the end of the course accounts for another 10 per cent and the final practical exam rounds up the remaining 45 per cent. The top five students of each course are announced at a graduation ceremony.

After the first 11 practical sessions, we were each given an assessment sheet, which listed our individual marks on various aspects, such as techniques (how we trussed the chicken, how we cut the vegetables), organisation (Were we methodical? Was our table top clean or messy?) and of course, the taste and presentation of the dish.

It also listed the grades of every student in the course. I was right at the bottom. My wife was second and the Spanish doctor was first in our section of eight students. The American architect from the other section topped the whole class.

My son was ranked in the middle of his patisserie course.

We were encouraged to eat the food that we cooked and we did, taking it home to have, usually, with a baguette and a bottle of red wine at the one-bedroom serviced apartment we stayed in. Baguettes and wine are cheap in France. A baguette costs less than 1 euro (S$2) and a decent bottle of wine less than 10 euros.

We also enjoyed the desserts baked by our son.

Occasionally, we would buy simple Chinese takeaways on the way home. A simple combination of plain rice, vegetable and meat for the three of us would cost about 20 euros, three to four times more expensive than what our hawker centres offer.

On weekends, we went out to restaurants to sample the fare. After all, we were in Paris to learn about food.

Le Cinq at the Four Seasons Hotel George V used to be a three-Michelin star place, but lost its third star in 2007. When it did not regain the lost star last year, a new chef was installed.

The food here was very good. Even better was the impeccable service. When the waiter brought us bread and poured olive oil in our saucers, I remarked casually to him that I thought that butter would be served in French restaurants with the bread, instead of olive oil. Smiling, he said, ‘No, monsieur’ but returned with not one but two plates of butter – one salted, the other with seaweed. The delightful service continued throughout the entire lunch.

Our Japanese classmate said she was often puzzled why French restaurant service was far better than Japan’s when French service in general lagged behind Japan’s – she said she could recharge her mobile phone at most shopping centres in Japan when the battery was low, but she could not do so in Paris.

I can think of one reason: the Michelin guide and the intense, sometimes brutal, competition that the public ranking engenders. One chef handed back his stars rather than have to live with the stress. And a few years ago, a chef committed suicide when rumours circulated that he was about to lose his stars.

There was not much time to visit museums during this trip to Paris, but I managed a visit to the Musee D’Orsay, a perennial favourite of mine.

My son, with his greater energy and because his patisserie course had only 20 lessons, visited many museums and sights in Paris.

When the practical exam approached, we were given a list of 10 dishes among the 30 we learnt – we could be tested on any one of them. On the day itself, it came down to two dishes and we drew lots on which dish we each had to prepare within 2� hours. An exter...

A balanced article by Ambalam.

While I still have my doubts about minimum wages, I feel that more measures should be instituted to protect the livelihood of the elderly and senior citizens. It is a shame to society that they have to slog like that for a pittance. MOM should spell out the minimum work conditions acceptable and then police it effectively.

Employers should also not be allowed an easy way out to employ foreign workers if there are Singaporeans willing and in the position to take up such jobs.

Harsh punitive measures should be taken against employers who exploit or mistreat foreign workers. I believe there are still too many rogue employers out there more interested in the bottomlines than treating humans with some basic dignity.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_420324.html

Aug 23, 2009
20,000 IR jobs
By Shuli Sudderuddin

One China woman told me she earns $900 per month selling 'ban mian'a kind of chinese mee.Foreigner can receive such a pay but not local because we have to pay so many things, utility bill, HDB S&C,housing loan,transport,children's education,food ...how to survive with the influx of foreigners.

Perfectly good for the PAP junta's to import foreigner's as many as possible and make them citizen's regardless of their profession.They willing to spend and also for those already Singapore citizen's they will vote in favour of the PAP in the upcoming election,pay back time.

tewniaseng,

I am with you that there should be greater control over the influx of foreigners in order to limit the social impact on the citizens.

However, I think the example you cited is not appropriate. Correct me if I read you wrongly, but you seem to say that locals are disadvantaged because they have to pay for utility, S&C, loans, children's education, food, etc.

I believe foreigners have to pay for housing as well, but usually in the form of rent. And obviously they would have to cover their food and other daily costs as well.

I think the principle must be that everyone, foreign or local, should be reimbursed fairly for their work. I assume that those who advocate for minimum wage apply this principle as well - that it should be applicable to all.

What I do not agree with Pap is they keep emphasise we are first world country,but our wages are 3rd world pay, it is inconsistent.Look at Japan and Australia, 1st world, and look at their pay, per hour how much.What we get here only $4 per hr or less ??

However, I think the example you cited is not appropriate. Correct me if I read you wrongly, but you seem to say that locals are disadvantaged because they have to pay for utility, S&C, loans, children's education, food, etc.

Local are disadvantage
1 foreigners can work 12 hours per day @ $5.00 per hour whereas employers have to pay local employees 8 hrs $5.00 + 4 hrs x $5.00 x 1.5.

2 Employers have to pay CPF for locals whereas foreigners employers pay only levy under special condition varies from $30 - $50 per month.

3 Foreign workers are given free accomodation and utilities.

Local are disadvantage
1 foreigners can work 12 hours per day @ $5.00 per hour whereas employers have to pay local employees 8 hrs $5.00 + 4 hrs x $5.00 x 1.5.

2 Employers have to pay CPF for locals whereas foreigners employers pay only levy under special condition varies from $30 - $50 per month.

3 Foreign workers are given free accomodation and utilities.

Sorry - Point 1 error
Foreigners wages ranges from $18 - $30 per 8 hours work which is equivalent to $2.25 - $3.75 per day

Macdonald also pay this rate to local, local have to pay for their own tranpsort, food, utilities and accomodation.

This post may seem disjointd from the topic at hand, but there is a bigger picture that can help to contextualize our discussions here, and which I am now ready to acknowledge.

While not unexpected, I did not know that the two opposition parties represented in Parliament had also ganged up with the PAP against Viswa Sadasivan in his maiden speech in Parliament. I came across this from Ng E Jay's blog:

http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=3556

[color=blue][Quote]

[color=black][b]Opposition MP Low Thia Khiang also gave Mr Viswa a very humiliating thumbs down by dismissing his motion altogether, and stating categorically that he did not want to have anything to do with the debate.[/b]

The MP for Hougang also said that the National Pledge should not be brought up unnecessarily, and that we should not invoke it for the sake of argument.

With [b]both PAP MPs as well as Opposition MPs ganging up against Mr Viswa[/b], and mainstream media channels like Channel News Asia zooming in on the new NMP in an attempt to portray him as acting nervous under pressure, it is time to give an objective assessment of the debate.[/color]

[Endquote][/color]

As a leadup to my next post, I would say at this point that there is mounting evidence that the growing political battle in Singapore is destined to shape up as a liberal (or Left) vs conservative (or Right) one. There is also increasing evidence that both the WP and the SPP are solidly on the side of PAP-conservatism; they cannot be relied on when it comes to [i]qualitative[/i] and [i]substantive[/i] change in Singapore:

The topic at hand - [b]Minimum Wage[/b] (and other income security programs) [b]vs Handouts[/b] is really reflective of a deeper difference, and symbolic of an important leftward shift on the political spectrum in Singapore.

The following is my honest, academic opinion.

[i](Note: To readers who are unfamiliar with the political spectrum but wish to follow this post, I suggest that you draw a straight horizontal line, mark the centre, and then position the parties I am talking about on the line. The extreme left is communist while the extreme right is outright fascism.)[/i]

I begin my analysis by making an ideological characterization of the PAP, and then follow that with the characterization of the other more prominent parties, beginning with the one that is closest ideologically to the PAP and finishing with the one furthest ideologically from them:

1. The dominant ideology that drives the PAP spans somewhere between [b]conservative to ultraconservative to fascist[/b]. The PAP is:

a) [b]fascist[/b] in its conduct with its furthest political-ideological opponents;

b) [b]ultraconservative[/b] in fiscal, economic, defence and foreign policy, etc; and,

c) [b]conservative[/b] in social policy such as in education, health, etc.

[b]Never let the PAP fool you into believing that they are not ideologically driven.[/b]

On the political spectrum, the PAP would be situated on the [b]far right[/b]; it's an extremist ideology by most standards worldwide. The far right is also frequently characterized as an ideology that has a blatant disregard for constitutionalism and the rule of law. (Sounds familiar so far?)

Next:

2. It has become abundantly clear that the both the WP and the SPP are both [b]right-of-centre conservative to further right conservative[/b] parties. This can be discerned quite clearly in their response to [b]any[/b] PAP policy or action: [i]the PAP is fundamentally right[/i], but we will just need to tweak the policy (or action) just a wee bit, and we will get this all perfect.

3. Based on just some of the articles that Kenneth Jeyaratnam has written, I would say the he is a [b]left-of-centre[/b] liberal. In all likelihood, he will attract people like himself to his party. Worth watching developments here for SDP and its supporters, because of the potential for a truer alliance among the Left parties.

4. The SDP is strongly [b]social democratic[/b] which places it firmly on the [b]left[/b] of the political spectrum. However, it sometimes moves closer to the [b]left-of-centre[/b] on some issues - the issue/s that I have noticed most obviously are with fiscal issues.

Social democrats (or sometimes left liberals) and left-of-centre liberals together make up the political Left.

[i](Hint: To determine if you are left or left-of-centre, just ask yourself if you have felt this way: "I agree with him (left-of-centre guy) fundamentally, but he doesn't go far enough.")[/i]

The right wing parties in Singapore are definitely the WP, the one-man SPP, and the PAP, though the former two are not as extreme as the latter.

This leads me to my own thoughts on the issue of opposition unity:

I am not interested in opposition unity if it means MORE PAP-style conservatives in Parliament.

If the WP and SPP are only interested in a less extreme version of the PAP, I'm not interested in that either; the PAP is good enough as it is, and with their miniscule numbers in Parlament, the less extreme alternative to the PAP don't make any impact anyway.

I'm only interested in the political Left being at the discussion table, because it is the Left that is being left out (pun purely accidental) of law and policy making. It would only be with the political Left at the table that we are going to have well rounded policy issues like Minimum wage, UI, Disability Income, Old Age Security, gay rights, anti-racism, etc brought to the table; these are [b]OUR[/b] areas of specialization; we tend to look out for the most vulnerable unlike the right wing which is only out to exploit the vulnerable.

All this explains why the WP and the SPP are frequently sneered at as the PAP's "approved opposition". It also explains the mainstream media's cooperation with the PAP to continue to lock out the political left from the political 'common space', as this recent SDP article served to illustrate.

http://www.yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/2662-the-agenda

[color=blue][quote]

[color=black]Also high on the agenda is its continuing effort to blackout news on the Singapore Democrats. While the media published the Workers' Party's National Day message made by its youth wing, it completely ignored the SDP's.

Our Women Democrats had delivered a video message whose number of viewers shot up to more than four thousand in just a few days since it was posted on YouTube. (Watch video here) Yet, there was absolutely no mention of this in the newspapers.

The reporting continues to be selective to ensure that the SDP is not mentioned at all in an attempt to keep us out of the minds of Singaporeans.

The Channel News Asia recently ran a story on how Singapore's political parties were using the Internet to reach out to Singaporeans. Again the report mentioned only the PAP and WP, completely ignoring the Singapore Democrats and our activities online.[/color]

[endquote][/color]

[color=blue]Court: BryanT, where did you get the information on foreign worker as per your say?

Did you know or already know that these foreign worker living provided by employer except daily meal?

Some these so-called FT can afford to rent and live in Condo and some in Semi-D. If employer willing to pay that amount of salary, can't Singaporean get the equal amount or better.

I stands by other opposite view of yours.

I suggest you to get your fact correct.

Hint: Property agent able to "feed" you more information.[/color]

===============================================


I believe foreigners have to pay for housing as well, but usually in the form of rent. And obviously they would have to cover their food and other daily costs as well.

[color=red]"Hint: Property agent able to "feed" you more information."
[/color]

NissanViP, thanks for sending me to court - I hope it is not the marsupial type. Does the gravity of the matter necessitate such a trial?

Anyway, I would have to beg the pardon of the judge (or prosecutor, or both at the same time) because I can't understand the point he is driving at. Is he trying to tell us that foreigners are a privileged lot because they are either provided free accommodation by their employers or are living a high-life in condos/semi-Ds?

Ok, I concede there could be foreign workers who are provided accommodation by their employers. But these are the lowly-paid FWs who work at the construction sites and shipyards. Despite this, according to the video "Migrant Workers" posted at this website (yes, I watched it), even the poor shipyard workers are charged $100 for a bed space on double-deckers in a container.

Of course there are other foreigners who live in condos and Semi-Ds. But I don't think these are selling 'ban mian' or threatening the livelihood of our elderly and senior citizens.

These "higher end" foreigners are competing against executives and engineers who probably do not need the protection of minimum wage laws that Ambalam is suggesting.

Lastly, do we really have to get the real estate agents involved? I try not to have to deal with them, together with insurance and 2nd-hand car salesmen.

I agree. minimum wage is a right ....
we want rights not charity. In NUS political science department they teach the opposite.

Court: Why can we not involve property agent who has upfront information numbers of foreigners lives in "high" class property?

Or do you already have the information off-hand? if so, please submit the statistic openly.

Why do you think singaporean need to compete with "high end" foreign worker.

Are you saying singaporean does not have the necessary qualification and skill to meet the industrial demand?

Yes, we do need foreign talent, but the purpose of having these foreign talent is to assist singaporean to gain knowledge and skill, not to replace singaporean.

Why shouldn't there be a minimum salary?

Court: Your statement will be treated fairly unlike in kangaroo court, you will be charged merciless.

Of course there are other foreigners who live in condos and Semi-Ds. But I don't think these are selling 'ban mian' or threatening the livelihood of our elderly and senior citizens.

These "higher end" foreigners are competing against executives and engineers who probably do not need the protection of minimum wage laws that Ambalam is suggesting.

Lastly, do we really have to get the real estate agents involved? I try not to have to deal with them, together with insurance and 2nd-hand car salesmen.

"I agree. minimum wage is a right ...."

spectum, allow me to push the idea further and suggest that having an employment is a right that the government owes all citizens.

I need to consult Robox, but I think we are already scrapping the surface of communism (or socialism).

I am not disagreeable to minimum wages per se. But I hope that advocates here be clear of its downside before they sell this "morphine". Not must they show that they are aware, they must either prove that these effects can be mitigated or are over-weighed by the benefits.

Let me list the cons (from wikipedia) for discussion sake :

1. Excludes low cost competitors from labor markets, hampers firms in reducing wage costs during trade downturns (etc.), generates various industrial-economic inefficiencies as well as unemployment, poverty, and price rises, and generally dysfunctions as basically a special form of political-economic protectionism – the labour market equivalent or analogue of such things as tariff barriers to low cost imports.

2. Hurts small business more than large business.

3. Reduces quantity demanded of workers. This may manifest itself through a reduction in the number of hours worked by individuals, or through a reduction in the number of jobs.

4. Reduces profit margins of business owners employing minimum wage workers, thus encouraging a move to businesses that do not employ low-skill workers.

5. Businesses try to compensate for the decrease in profit by simply raising the prices of the goods being sold thus causing inflation and increasing the costs of goods and services produced.

6. Does not improve the situation of those in poverty, it benefits some at the expense of the poorest and least productive.

7. Is a limit on the freedom of both employers and employees, and can result in the exclusion of certain groups from the labor force. For example, during the apartheid era in South Africa, white trade unions lobbied for the introduction of minimum wage laws so as to exclude black workers from the labor market. By preventing black workers from selling their labor for less than white workers, the black workers were prevented from competing for jobs held by whites.

8. Businesses spend less on training their employees.[36]
Is less effective than other methods (e.g. the Earned Income Tax Credit) at reducing poverty, and is more damaging to businesses than those other methods.

9. Discourages further education among the poor by enticing people to enter the job market.

10. Causes outsourcing and loss of domestic manufacturing jobs to other countries.

PS. Forgive me, Robox, I'm really stepping into your arena.

Now you get it.....

Why do you think these parties get to stick their butt safely in Parliament?

To me, what really happened is :-

One is to bring down CSJ and the other had brought down late JBJ hence the seats :)

As simple as that, can see through >.

Re: "I agree. minimum wage is a right...we want rights not charity."

Yes, and the right is really a right to [b]living wage[/b].

In this blog, handouts like Workfare have been described as "demeaning', "humiliating", and "encouraging beholden-ness". But handouts are also the PAP's [b]vote-buying tactic[/b], particularly when you consider the manner in which those handouts are disbursed.

Imagine how someone earning $650/mo feels upon receiving not [b]$100[/b]/mo but [b]$600[/b] twice a year, if that.

$600 sounds and feels like a lot more money, and the disburser, our Most Benevolent in the PAP, should be reciprocated with serf-like gratitude.

Oh, and your vote.

(So you see, Lee Hsien Loong's "fixing the opposition" and "buying votes" comment was not a Freudian slip after all.)

This is really no different from the pre-election bribes tactic that the PAP is becoming increasingly associated with.

There was a reason for my writing on political ideologies and their location on the political spectrum earlier.

The first reason is for everyone concerned - political parties and supporters alike - to be in a better position to coalesce around issues that correspond to ideology.

Next, for too long, Singaporeans opposed to the PAP have only believed that we only have an option between the PAP and anyone-but-the-PAP. But an analysis of the political ideologies espoused by the various non-PAP parties may help Singaporeans to make better informed choices at the polls: Are we hoping to vote out the PAP and replace it with another PAP, or are we hoping to vote out the PAP to replace it with a qualitatively different government?

Published August 27, 2009

Million-dollar tax returns fatten coffers
More make it to million-dollar club in YA2008, but leaner times lie ahead

By TEH SHI NING
Email this article
Print article
Feedback

(SINGAPORE) Singapore's million-dollar club continued to grow, as did these top earners' average tax bill.

'One of the trends we can expect with the downturn is an increase in non-compliance of tax obligations.'

- Koh Soo How,
PwC

A total of 3,838 taxpayers earned above a million dollars in the year of assessment 2008, which assesses income earned in 2007. This was a 40 per cent surge from 2,751 top earners in the previous year.

The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore's (IRAS) annual report, released yesterday, showed that these top earners earned $8.24 billion in total - about $2.15 million on average - and paid a total of about $1.39 billion in income tax for the year.
This works out to a tax bill of about $361,000 per millionaire, up from the previous year's average of $327,200.
As an indication of Singapore's tax profile, the IRAS data also showed that these million-dollar earners, who made up just 0.4 per cent of the total number of taxpayers in YA2008, accounted for about 25 per cent of the total personal income tax assessed.
Commissioner of Inland Revenue Moses Lee said in the annual report: 'As Singapore's income tax collection is on a preceding year's basis, it was relatively unaffected by the financial meltdown which took place towards the end of 2008.'

Indeed, overall tax revenue collected rose 2.4 per cent to $29.8 billion, from $29.1 billion in the previous financial year, with increased takings in most types of tax.

'However, tax revenue is expected to fall sharply in FY2009/10, as the severe economic slowdown impacts income and consumption,' Mr Lee said.
For FY2008/09, which runs from April 2008 to March 2009, income tax collection, which includes corporate income tax, individual income tax and withholding tax, still rose 14.9 per cent from the previous financial year, to $17.2 billion.

Income tax makes up 57 per cent of overall tax collected, and is based on the income of businesses and individuals from the previous year.
GDP grew a robust 7.7 per cent in 2007, which made up the bulk of the year in which incomes taxed were made.

Hence, with individuals enjoying higher earnings, personal income tax collection rose 19.4 per cent to $5.4 billion. The overall number of taxpayers for the year assessed rose to 960,815 from 856,833 the previous year.
Corporate income tax rose 14.3 per cent to $10.6 billion, as the favourable economic climate of 2007 and early 2008 meant that companies were reporting better corporate profits.

Given that the economy's growth slowed to 1.1 per cent in 2008, and is expected to contract in 2009, corporate tax income collection is expected to shrink in the next one to two financial years, IRAS said.

Gan Kwee Lian, executive director of tax services at KPMG in Singapore, noted the same, saying that she expects the most significant impact of the financial crisis on tax collections to be only seen in the FY2010/11 annual report.

Ms Gan noted, too, that the reduction in corporate tax, from 18 per cent to 17 per cent, would accentuate the dip in tax collections then.

While overall tax takings have not taken any significant blow from the financial crisis due to the timing of tax assessment, Koh Soo How, tax partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, pointed out that one area visibly hit by the crisis was stamp duty collection, which plunged 61.1 per cent from the previous financial year, to $1.4 billion.

Mr Koh said that the fall in the number of property transactions, especially in the later half of 2008, likely contributed to this, noting that stamp duty is collected within 14 days of a sale. The decline in property prices would has resulted in low stamp duty collection from the sale and purchase agreements too.

IRAS said that the goods and services tax (GST) collection would also better reflect the recession than income tax collection, as it tends to move in tandem with economic conditions. Total GST collected in FY2008/09 rose 5.2 per cent to $6.5 billion from the previous year.

In FY2008, IRAS spent 0.8 cent to collect each dollar of tax, an increase over last year's 0.77 cent per dollar collected, but lower than the three-year average cost of 0.84 cent per dollar collected.

Total cumulative tax arrears fell 14 per cent to $766.9 million, but Mr Koh pointed out that there was in fact a close to 10 per cent rise in GST arrears.

'One of the trends we can expect with the downturn, is an increase in non-compliance of tax-obligations. And already, we can see that there has been a significant rise in penalties arising from audit, particularly for GST,' he said.

IRAS audited and investigated a total of 7,919 cases, recovering $199 million in taxes and penalties. This was higher than the $154 million in penalties recovered last year.

Re: "...the debate rages on over the humongous multi-million-dollar salaries for PAP ministers..."

I was just remineded about another aspect to the discussion of ministerial income.

For readers who need to follow the economics based argument, in lay language, GDP is really just a measure of the total volume of business in an economy.

I've just ben reminded of this:

http://temasekreview.com/?p=12364

Re: [color=red]"...Singapore is obsessed with the GDP growth to the extent that a variable proportion of the Ministers’ salaries are based on it."[/color]

Thus:

1. The larger the volume of business there is in any economy, the larger the GDP.

2. To create that larger volume of business, one way is to increase the number of people in that economy both as producers and consumers.

3. Enter: foreign workers.

4. And the subsequent increase of minsterial incomes as explained in the TR article above.

But has your life gotten better even if GDP has increased?

Aug 25, 2009
Poorest hit the hardest
This group was affected most by food and housing prices in first six months
By Joyce Teo

SINGAPORE's poorest 20 per cent were hit twice as hard by inflation than better off households during the first half of the year, new Government figures show.

Largely because of rising food and housing prices, the low-income group experienced inflation at 1.6 per cent in the six months to June, compared to 0.7 per cent for the middle 60 per cent and 0.9 per cent for the top 20 per cent of households. But these price rises are well down on the levels seen just a year ago.

Overall, the average household saw a 0.8 per cent inflation rate in the first half of the year, compared with the whopping 7.1 per cent in the same period last year, said the Department of Statistics on Monday.

The steeper rise for the lower paid is largely down to their being disproportionately impacted by higher prices for basic commodities such as housing, power, transport and food.

July's consumer price index (CPI) - the main measure of inflation - was down 0.5 per cent on the same month a year ago due to lower transport, housing and recreation costs.

Comparing July 2009 with July 2008, housing costs dropped 1.3 per cent - largely down to cheaper electricity - while transport and communications costs fell by 3 per cent, mainly because of petrol price falls. With lower holiday travel costs, recreation too dipped by 0.9 per cent.

Economists are expecting these mild year-on-year price falls to turn positive soon. 'Although prices are still dropping year-on-year, the rates of decline are starting to slow,' said Mr Song Seng Wun, an economist from CIMB-GK which is expecting mild deflation for the remainder of this year.

After stripping out the 'seasonal' effects, the CPI was up 0.3 per cent in July over June, after rising 0.2 per cent in June and 0.8 per cent in May.

This was largely due to a 1.4 per cent hike in housing costs because of higher electricity tariffs, plus service and conservancy charges. Rebates were given in June, but not July. Also, food prices dipped 0.1 per cent in July over June, while transport and communications costs rose 0.7 per cent, according to CIMB-GK.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is predicting full-year inflation will come in at between minus 0.5 per cent and 0.5 per cent.

http://www.straitstimes.com/print/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_420936.html

[color=red]"But has your life gotten better even if GDP has increased?"[/color]

Robox, sorry that I've not engaged you for quite a while. Your long posts can be quite intimidating :)

I was contemplating the foreign-worker-to-ministerial-pay connection that you pointed out, after which you asked whether Singaporeans' lives have gotten better.

I really suppose it depends on how people define "better".

I was reading the article in ST's Review by Tom Davenport called, "Not perfect, but still a role model". I quote, "[A]nd it seems to me that too many of its citizens are obsessed with luxury brands and conspicuous consumption."

I don't think we need an angmo to make this kind of profound observation, because you and I would probably have noticed that that it is a prevalent mentality locally. We are probably personally guilty ourselves, if that is the correct word, of such tendencies too.

So if people define feeling "better" by being able to get their hands on the iPhones, Pradas and whatnot, and the government understands it to be so, then there is no mystery for the focus on GDP.

We can discuss what has gone wrong along the way that has left us with a population bent on materialism. But the fact is people feel more deprived if you deny them their iPhones than if you restrict their right to assemble.

Your question is a correct one to pose, but you can't begrudge them when they answer "yes" resoundingly.