Things that will happen after Polling Day (10 Jul)

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Plan for GST hike between 2022 and 2025 unchanged: Lawrence Wong​

The planned GST hike from 7 per cent to 9 per cent was announced in Budget 2018. PHOTO: ST FILE

Choo Yun Ting

OCT 6, 2021

SINGAPORE - The plan to raise the goods and services tax (GST) between next year and 2025 remains unchanged, Finance Minister Lawrence Wong told Parliament on Tuesday (Oct 5).
Speaking during the debate on the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, he also stressed that the Government continues to "consider all options" to address income and wealth inequalities and support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Mr Wong was responding to several MPs, including Mr Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang) and Workers' Party MP Louis Chua (Sengkang GRC), who had raised concerns about the timing of the GST hike as well as the possibility of a wealth tax to address wealth inequality issues.
The minister reiterated the need to raise the Government's recurring revenues given that recurrent expenditures will continue to go up due to factors such as healthcare and social spending, adding that there is "no avoiding this".
The planned GST hike from 7 per cent to 9 per cent was announced in Budget 2018, and a $6 billion Assurance Package was announced in Budget 2020 to help cushion the impact of the hike, with more help directed at lower-income households.
"We will continue to consider all factors including our fiscal needs, as well as the prevailing economic conditions, in deciding on the timing of the GST rate increase," said Mr Wong.
Addressing Mr Chua's suggestions of wealth taxes and more reliefs and aid for SMEs, the minister said that they were both aligned in their intentions to address wealth inequalities and support SMEs.

"But to address wealth inequalities, what exactly do we do, what sort of measures do we put in place - that's something that we will have to study carefully," Mr Wong said, adding that Singapore has a form of wealth tax through the tax levied on private residential properties, which is tiered according to the property's annual value.
"I am unable to reveal what we are thinking about now. I think that would be premature and I don't want to pre-empt the Budget next year, but obviously we are continuing to consider all options to address... No. 1, wealth and income inequalities and No. 2, what more we can do to support SMEs," he said.
The Bill also included legislative amendments to effect tax measures announced in the Budget statement earlier this year as well as other Covid-19 support measures introduced in May and July.


Speaking during the debate, Mr Louis Ng (Nee Soon GRC) asked about tax deductions for landlords, noting that it seems to encourage a situation where a landlord could evict a failed tenant and as a result pay reduced taxes on their rental income.
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He called into question the provisions in the Bill, given recent tensions between commercial tenants and landlords during this Covid-19 pandemic, which have led to laws being passed to compel landlords to provide rental waivers, penalty-free termination of rental contracts and match rental support by the Government.
Mr Ng also asked for a clarification on how the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) intends to ascertain whether a landlord has made reasonable efforts to find a new tenant during the vacancy period and guard against bad-faith landlords.


In reply, Mr Wong said that the section in the Bill was in line with the existing tax treatment which Iras applies, and the legislation provides certainty for taxpayers.
On what landlords would have to do to show reasonable efforts to secure a tenant during the vacancy period, he cited how Iras would request the taxpayer to provide evidence that the property was maintained in lettable condition, or that the property had been advertised for rent.
Addressing a request by Mr Don Wee (Chua Chu Kang GRC) for the option to accelerate the write-off of the cost of acquiring plant and machinery for another year, Mr Wong urged that schemes be considered in totality.
"We continue to monitor the situation closely and review all our schemes as needed. And should there be a need to extend any measure, any such extension will then be announced at Budget 2022, and then it will be effected in next year's Income Tax (Amendment) Bill. So it's an ongoing process."

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Public transport fares to rise by 3 to 4 cents for adults from Dec 26​

Prices for cash fares, single trip tickets, monthly concessions and travel passes will remain unchanged. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

Kok Yufeng


NOV 4, 2021

SINGAPORE - Bus and train fares will go up by 2.2 per cent from Dec 26, said the Public Transport Council (PTC) on Wednesday (Nov 3) following its annual fare revision exercise.
This translates to a fare hike of 3 to 4 cents for adults who pay their fares by card and a 1-cent increase in concessionary fares for seniors, students, people with disabilities and low-wage workers.
Prices for cash fares, single trip tickets, monthly concessions and travel passes will remain unchanged, said the PTC.
Adult fares for journeys of up to 14.2km, for instance a train ride from Sengkang to Raffles Place, will go up by 3 cents. This covers about 75 per cent of public transport journeys taken by adults.
Adult fares for journeys of more than 14.2km will increase by 4 cents.
PTC said that while it recognises the "difficult economic circumstances" that Singaporeans are facing due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a key consideration for this year's fare review was the sharp plunge in public transport ridership last year.
"We seek commuters' understanding that it is not possible to keep deferring fare increases as they are needed to support the rising operating costs, such as energy and wages, for our public transport system," said PTC chairman Richard Magnus. "Lower fare revenue with higher operational costs cannot continue indefinitely."

Public transport ridership dropped to as low as 25 per cent of pre-pandemic levels during the circuit breaker period last April and May.
For the whole of last year, the average daily ridership for buses and trains fell by 30 per cent and almost 40 per cent respectively - the same levels as more than a decade ago.
In September this year, Transport Minister S. Iswaran said ridership was around 60 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.


Despite this, the operators have continued to run trains and buses largely at pre-pandemic frequencies, the PTC said, adding that they also incurred a few million dollars in costs a year from cleaning and disinfection regimes as well as the deployment of staff to ensure public safety on the ground.
SBS Transit and SMRT would have incurred significant losses in 2020 without broad-based Government support, the PTC added.
Both operators have asked for the full 2.2 per cent fare adjustment.

The maximum allowable fare adjustment this year is -2.2 per cent, according to the current fare formula which takes into account core inflation, energy prices, productivity and network capacity.
But the final adjustment is 2.2 per cent after adding the 4.4 per cent fare increase that was carried over from 2020. The PTC had decided to freeze public transport fares for that year.
PTC said it decided to grant the full 2.2 per cent increase to help mitigate the rising costs of running public transport services, noting that energy prices in particular have risen by over 30 per cent for the first half of this year.
It noted that the fare hike could have been up to 60 cents had it not excluded the network capacity factor (NCF) in the fare formula for 11 out of the 12 months last year. The NCF is a measure of the cost of expanding public transport capacity relative to ridership.
This comes after the PTC reviewed whether to include the NCF in this year's fare calculations, given the exceptional circumstances of the pandemic.


The PTC said the NCF for the whole of 2020 - if fully factored in - would have been 50 per cent compared with 3.9 per cent in 2019 and 1.6 per cent in 2018. This would have meant a 51.5 per cent, or 60-cent, fare increase.
Instead, the PTC derived an NCF of 0.7 per cent after it decided to consider only January 2020 - the sole month unaffected by Covid-19.
Mr Iswaran said in a Facebook post on Wednesday that the PTC took into account rising costs, potential losses by public transport operators if not for government support, the impact on commuters, and help for vulnerable segments of society in this year's review.
The 1-cent cap on hikes to concessionary fares means more than half of all Singaporeans will continue to enjoy substantial discounts of up to 70 per cent off adult fares. This is to protect the vulnerable and heavy public transport users, he added.
"The PTC will continue to do its best to safeguard commuters' interest while ensuring a financially sustainable public transport system," he said.


This year's fare hike translates to a $34.2 million rise in annual fare revenue - $4.6 million for SBS Transit Rail, $10 million for SMRT Trains and $19.6 million for the Land Transport Authority, the PTC said.
The two operators will contribute about $2.23 million to the Public Transport Fund to share their gains with commuters.
The Government will tap this fund to provide 600,000 public transport vouchers worth $30 each to help households to cope with fare increase.
This is the largest number of public transport vouchers issued to date, the PTC added.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Taxi fares in Singapore poised to rise in March​

Market leader ComfortDelGro has signalled to the authorities its intention to adjust flag-down and distance rates. ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

Christopher Tan
Senior Transport Correspondent


JAN 28, 2022


SINGAPORE - First, bus and train fares. And now, taxi fares are poised to rise - as early as March.
The Straits Times understands that market leader ComfortDelGro, which controls 60 per cent of the total taxi fleet of around 15,000 cabs in the Republic, has signalled to the authorities its intention to adjust flag-down and distance rates.
The Public Transport Council, which has to be informed of fare changes, has yet to respond to queries from ST filed early Thursday (Jan 27).
Currently, taxi flag-down fares are mostly $3.70 for diesel taxis and $3.90 for petrol-electric hybrids. And for every 400m thereafter up to 10km, the meter goes up by 22 cents. Beyond 10km, the distance fare rises by 22 cents every 350m.
At its last adjustment in 2011, ComfortDelGro raised the flag-down fare of most cabs by 20 cents and distance fares by two cents per fare band. The planned adjustment is expected to be similar.
As has been the practice, other taxi companies - Trans-Cab, SMRT, Premier and Prime - will adjust fares after the market leader.
The manager of a smaller player said: "We are waiting to see what Comfort does. Costs are still going up. And the $5 rental rebate from the Government will end soon. Drivers will have a harder time."

He was referring to the Covid-19 Driver Relief Fund, which was extended recently. In December, cabbies and private-hire drivers received a $10 payout per vehicle per day, and a $5 payout per vehicle per day in January.
Sources reckon the Government could extend the relief further, as economic and social activities have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.
But independent of this, the planned fare adjustment is also said to be in response to rising fuel prices. Fuel pump prices have been rising steadily since mid-2020 as demand for oil products rises in tandem with world economies emerging from the pandemic. Since then, the most popular 95-octane petrol has risen by 50 cents a litre.


ComfortDelGro was not available for comment.
Commuters are divided about the prospect of having to pay more.
Retiree Lawrence Seow, 61, said: "To be fair, an increase is justified. Because of inflation, everything has gone up. If I find that taxis are too expensive, I'll take Grab, or the bus. Or I cycle."
But lawyer Bryan Tan, 50, said even though posted fares have not risen for some time, the final fare he pays has increased.
"There is surge pricing, for instance, while before there was none," Mr Tan said.
"Since the arrival of private-hire, taxi companies have followed some of their pricing. Now that taxi fares are going up, I expect private-hire companies to make some adjustments too."


Cabbies, of course, welcomed the anticipated increase.
Veteran cabby Tony Pang, 73, who is now a relief driver three times a week, said: "It is a good move. More people are taking cabs now. And come Feb 1, when unvaccinated drivers cannot drive any more, there will be fewer cabs and more business for us."
Public transport fares rose by up to four cents per trip on Dec 26.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

ComfortDelGro raises cab fares by around 8%​

ComfortDelGro said the company's taxis' flagdown fare will rise by 20 cents from March 1, 2022. PHOTO: ST FILE

Christopher Tan
Senior Transport Correspondent

Feb 8, 2022

SINGAPORE - Leading taxi group ComfortDelGro will raise cab fares from March 1 - its first fare increase in a decade.
Confirming a report by The Straits Times two weeks ago, the listed company, which controls about 8,900 cabs or 60 per cent of the fleet here, said the flag-down fare will rise by 20 cents.
This means the starting fare of a Hyundai i40 cab will increase from $3.70 to $3.90, and that of a Toyota Prius, Hyundai Ioniq, and Hyundai Kona, as well as the starting fare of LimoCab and MaxiCabs, will increase from $3.90 to $4.10.
Distance and time-based charges will also rise. There will be a two-cent increase for distance rates from 22 cents to 24 cents for every 400m (or 350m after 10km) for normal taxis, and a three-cent increase from 30 cents to 33 cents for limousines.
Likewise, a two-cent increase from 22 cents to 24 cents for every 45 seconds of waiting time for normal taxis, and a three-cent increase from 30 cents to 33 cents for limousines will also take place.
With the increase, the fare for a 10km off-peak normal taxi trip is estimated to rise by 7.7 per cent or 84 cents - from $10.98 to $11.82.
The adjustment, which is almost identical to the one it made in 2011, is to "help cabbies defray higher operating costs resulting from rising fuel prices and inflation", ComfortDelGro said.


"In the last six months alone, fuel prices have increased by about 10 per cent on average, in line with rising oil prices as world economies continue to emerge from the pandemic," it added.
"Inflation has also been heading north. In fact, in the last decade, inflation has grown by close to 12 per cent."
ComfortDelGro added that cabbies' incomes have also been adversely impacted by the pandemic over the last two years, despite government relief and $206.5 million-worth of rental waivers the company has extended to its drivers.


ComfortDelGro private mobility group and taxi chief executive Jackson Chia said: "With rising fuel costs and inflation, the earnings of our cabbies have been hard hit. This fare adjustment will help our cabbies defray the higher costs of operation.
"Given that the last fare revision was more than a decade back, we seek the understanding and support of our commuters."
National Taxi Association adviser Yeo Wan Ling said: "We recognise that taxi fares need to match higher operating costs and have been in talks with ComfortDelGro on fare changes.
"We support the fare adjustments and hope that this move will help drivers better cope with rising costs."
As has happened in the past, the other four taxi operators are likely to follow ComfortDelGro's lead in raising fares.
Ms Jasmine Tan, general manager of second largest player Trans-Cab, which has around 2,400 taxis, said the company will discuss with its drivers’ union to determine how much it will adjust fares by.
“We will consult the ground and then inform the Public Transport Council,” she said.
Meanwhile, half an hour after ComfortDelGro announced its fare increase, the PTC replied to a query by The Straits Times filed two weeks ago that “it has been informed of ComfortDelGro’s intention” to raise taxi fares.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Local IT grads can’t find jobs while engineers constantly transferred from India to work in SG under CECA​

by Correspondent

05 Feb 2023




It was reported in the local media on Saturday (4 Feb 2023) that IT graduates from the local universities are having a hard time finding tech jobs.
James Looi, a promising IT graduate from the Singapore Management Univerity (SMU) was good enough to have earned the coveted internships at GovTech, Grab and Shopee.
But five months ahead of his graduation last December, Mr Looi did not get any interviews despite applying for 20 tech jobs.
The only company that granted him interviews was tech company TikTok. Still, after seven rounds of interviews with the company, he was unceremoniously dropped.
Mr Looi said, “I was shocked, disappointed and helpless. I never considered the possibility I would graduate and be unable to find a (tech) job.”
Another graduate, who only gave his name as Mr Tan, was also disappointed. He graduated last December with a digital business degree and applied to several prominent tech companies but did not get any replies.
Mr Tan said, “My first choice would definitely be a career in tech, but the industry would need some time to rebound. I am now looking for jobs in banking and marketing, and hope to get back to tech after one to two years.”
Local graduates like Mr Looi and Mr Tan are among a slew of IT graduates fighting for jobs in the current tech downturn. Many tech companies, including Shopee, Facebook and Twitter, have been laying off people in recent times.

The present slowdown in the tech job market has certainly surprised many IT graduates, who had a 97.8 per cent overall employment rate back in 2021.
When contacted by the local media, the local universities said that they have career coaches to prepare students and graduates for their job search through mentoring and workshops.

Majority of team members from India​

Meanwhile, a source in the IT company, Cognizant Singapore, has told TOC that a number of IT staff were successfully transferred from India to the Singapore’s branch last year.
They were all given work passes by the Manpower Ministry to work here. TOC emailed Cognizant last November for a response, but to date, there has been no reply.
Indian IT engineers and managers were said to have been transferred to Singapore to work on projects which Cognizant has secured from clients in Singapore.
Under the India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), intra-corporate transferees can be transferred from one country to another and work in that country for up to as long as 8 years.
Also, CECA gives preferential access for Singapore service providers and investors in the various sectors of interest: including engineering, banking, telecommunications and real estate development. Such access gives them more opportunities to expand beyond Singapore, MTI said.
In any case, it’s not known if the other India-based IT companies like Wipro, Infosys, TCS, etc are doing the same by constantly transferring Indian IT people to their Singapore’s branches to work here.

The source also confirmed with TOC that the majority of people in project teams are from India and that he is not impressed with the quality of those transferred from India to work here. In meetings, they tend to speak in Hindi among themselves, oblivious to the other non-Indian people inside the meeting, the source told TOC.
Indeed, according to a study in India, it has been said that 95% of engineers in India are unfit for software development jobs. And according to Quacquarelli Symonds’ (QS) ranking of universities in the world, the top 5 universities in India were ranked more than 150th:

• Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (World ranking 155)
• Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), Mumbai (World ranking 172)
• Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD), New Delhi (World ranking 174)
• Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM), Chennai (World ranking 250)
• Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT-KGP), Kharagpur (World ranking 270)

In Singapore, the National University of Singapore (NUS) is ranked 11th, while Nanyang Technological Univerity (NTU)19th.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Local IT grads can’t find jobs while engineers constantly transferred from India to work in SG under CECA​

by Correspondent

05 Feb 2023




It was reported in the local media on Saturday (4 Feb 2023) that IT graduates from the local universities are having a hard time finding tech jobs.
James Looi, a promising IT graduate from the Singapore Management Univerity (SMU) was good enough to have earned the coveted internships at GovTech, Grab and Shopee.
But five months ahead of his graduation last December, Mr Looi did not get any interviews despite applying for 20 tech jobs.
The only company that granted him interviews was tech company TikTok. Still, after seven rounds of interviews with the company, he was unceremoniously dropped.
Mr Looi said, “I was shocked, disappointed and helpless. I never considered the possibility I would graduate and be unable to find a (tech) job.”
Another graduate, who only gave his name as Mr Tan, was also disappointed. He graduated last December with a digital business degree and applied to several prominent tech companies but did not get any replies.
Mr Tan said, “My first choice would definitely be a career in tech, but the industry would need some time to rebound. I am now looking for jobs in banking and marketing, and hope to get back to tech after one to two years.”
Local graduates like Mr Looi and Mr Tan are among a slew of IT graduates fighting for jobs in the current tech downturn. Many tech companies, including Shopee, Facebook and Twitter, have been laying off people in recent times.

The present slowdown in the tech job market has certainly surprised many IT graduates, who had a 97.8 per cent overall employment rate back in 2021.
When contacted by the local media, the local universities said that they have career coaches to prepare students and graduates for their job search through mentoring and workshops.

Majority of team members from India​

Meanwhile, a source in the IT company, Cognizant Singapore, has told TOC that a number of IT staff were successfully transferred from India to the Singapore’s branch last year.
They were all given work passes by the Manpower Ministry to work here. TOC emailed Cognizant last November for a response, but to date, there has been no reply.
Indian IT engineers and managers were said to have been transferred to Singapore to work on projects which Cognizant has secured from clients in Singapore.
Under the India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), intra-corporate transferees can be transferred from one country to another and work in that country for up to as long as 8 years.
Also, CECA gives preferential access for Singapore service providers and investors in the various sectors of interest: including engineering, banking, telecommunications and real estate development. Such access gives them more opportunities to expand beyond Singapore, MTI said.
In any case, it’s not known if the other India-based IT companies like Wipro, Infosys, TCS, etc are doing the same by constantly transferring Indian IT people to their Singapore’s branches to work here.

The source also confirmed with TOC that the majority of people in project teams are from India and that he is not impressed with the quality of those transferred from India to work here. In meetings, they tend to speak in Hindi among themselves, oblivious to the other non-Indian people inside the meeting, the source told TOC.
Indeed, according to a study in India, it has been said that 95% of engineers in India are unfit for software development jobs. And according to Quacquarelli Symonds’ (QS) ranking of universities in the world, the top 5 universities in India were ranked more than 150th:

• Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (World ranking 155)
• Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), Mumbai (World ranking 172)
• Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD), New Delhi (World ranking 174)
• Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM), Chennai (World ranking 250)
• Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT-KGP), Kharagpur (World ranking 270)

In Singapore, the National University of Singapore (NUS) is ranked 11th, while Nanyang Technological Univerity (NTU)19th.

Who did singkies vote for?

 

[millim6868]

Lol,they.ask.for.it,kpkb for wat

 

[searcher1]