e japanese govt has did it, e british govt has done it, e taiwanese govt is almost done w it.. so how is e spore govt going to do it?
PM Lee says there wont be a decrease in GST and measures in boasting private consumption seems unlikely which means no shopping vouchers.. i really wonder wat kind of measures e gahmen has in mind..
personally i think e impact of decreasing GST will be rather marginal even though i wld nevertheless like it to be suspended for a yr =P
cos from 7%, how far can u decrease? even if u decrease it to 3%, to me and perhaps e consumers, its just a 4% discount, not significant enough for me to go on a shopping spree..
but if its no GST, i will seriously consider getting e big tix items eg PC, mini laptop, furniture cos e cost savings in absolute terms is bigger.. one case in pt, when robinson says it will be absorbin e GST earlier this yr aka 7% discount, hordes of ppl are queuing at e cashier counter..
so this can be a feasible policy but of course e gahmen is not willing to do it cos GST is e 2nd largest revenue source for e gahmen now.. why wld e gahmen kill this golden goose even for a short period of time of 1 yr??
n i will veri much prefer the way Taiwanese gahmen is doing rather than e way i foresee e spore gahmen is going to do..
for those who is still clueless over wat e Taiwanese govt is doing, they are giving out shopping vouchers before CNY to boast up private consumption while spore gahmen alr reiterated tt its not doing to do so cos e proportion of consumption going aboard is 0.6, meaning out of every dollar that one spends, 60 cents goes to will not stay in spore and goes out to foreign producers/companies.. not surprising cos spore is heavily reliant on imports..
but lets look at it from another point of view, isnt Taiwan in e similar situation as us? no natural resources, reliant on imports, depends on electronic exports - sounds very familar right? hence wouldnt a large enough (more than 30%) proportion of consumption goes aboard too? n frankly speaking, in a globalised world today, which country wouldnt experience e abv situation? i have this feeling that even Japan n US (think of e brands that we usu use on our daily living, u will realise tt most are either Jap or US brand or at least these brands command a large mkt share) also faces a 'leakage' too! hence how strong is this argument?
also not forgetting, although 60% sounds large, lets not forget tt 40% still remains in spore!!! dun make it sound as if spore wont stand to gain at all k? besides e cost of e merchandise, other factors are also calculated/included in e final retail price eg logistic costs, rental cost, labour cost and all these aspects are usu done by spore companies!
n vouchers 'forces' ppl to spend. in this uncertain times, wat do u think is ppl's propensity to spend? im sure e MPS will be pathetic, 0.2 or 0.3 only which implies that for every extra dollar one has, one will only spend 30 cents or less. hence if e govt is thinkin of giving out cash to sporeans n hope that we spend them, im sorry but i dun think this is going to happen.. i wont be surprised if e majority of sporeans save up all of them although i will spend it, overseas =P
so between issuing vouchers that can only be used in spore to a majority spending only a small portion of e extra cash/ppl using e cash to spend overseas, which is a better option for e domestic economy?
its easy to focus on one aspect n neglect e other.. i also know tt spore's C cannot make it, just 40% of GDP.. BUT its still e LARGEST component!! G is only 20%, I another 10-15% n even net X i suspect it's in e range of 25-30% only!! so shouldnt we do sth abt C?
im also not proposing e spore gahmen to only focus on C n forget e other aspect of e economy.. im also all out spore gahmen taking a leaf from e chinese govt although i dun think spore needs to pump in so much $$ like e chinese govt in developing infra cos we alr have e basic infra up n running while china still sorely lacks e necessary infra esp railways/roads.. but im not worried abt this aspect as it has been spore gahmen forte..
well, lets just wait for another 2 mths to see wats e ang bao we got..
