He says it is important to resist pressures to use the reserves, and to unlock them only when really necessary.
PM Lee Hsien Loong's reminder to the House came amid calls by opposition MPs for the Government to spend more of the monies locked up.
This compact of protecting the reserves has been forged across generations of Singaporeans, and had also been upheld across both sides of the House, he said. Mr Leong said that in the face of the goods and services tax hike and rising cost of living, accumulating reserves at the current rate “hurts the welfare of present-day Singaporeans”.
But that does not mean Singapore should mindlessly save for a rainy day without regard for present needs, said PM Lee. Keeping this balance means the Government can count on the reserves to provide 3.5 per cent of its annual spending without having to double the GST, said PM Lee.Among the points Mr Leong made was that too much money from the reserves was locked up in trust and endowment funds to pay for longer-term spending, at the expense of current generations.
These include the over $2 billion disbursed each year from the GST Voucher Fund to help lower- and middle-income households defray their GST expenses, and money in the Pioneer Generation Fund and Merdeka Generation Fund that is drawn down regularly to support Singaporeans in those cohorts. The cash proceeds accrue to the reserves and are then invested to generate returns, which contribute to government spending. In this way, the proceeds of land sales are used indirectly in each year’s budget, she said.
This ethos was in fact shared across the aisle in the past, he added, noting that former WP leader Low Thia Khiang had commended the Government for being prudent when it returned $4 billion to past reserves in 2009.
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