Yay or Nay? Here are the reactions to this year’s #SGBudget2015
…in gifs, because there are too many words and numbers. Maybe you fell asleep while listening to Minister of Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s 3-hour speech. Well, all you want to know is whether the proposed changes are good for you, right?
These reaction gifs will help you out!
Education
1. Fees for national exams for S’porean students in Govt-funded schools to be waived
Now, people in government schools pay up to $900 from primary school to pre-university just on exam fees.
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2. Children aged 6 and below in 2015 will get Child Development Account (CDA) top-ups of up to S$600, and there will be a S$150 top-up to the Edusave Accounts of Singaporean students aged 7 to 16
CDAs can be used to help pay for pre-school fees.
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Workfare
3. Companies focused on innovation, research & development and internalisation to receive enhanced support with various grants and schemes
These include the National Research Fund, which invests in research and development (R&D), Double Tax Deduction for Internationalisation Scheme, a new tax incentive (International Growth Scheme), and increase in co-investment cap for two schemes by SPRING — the Startup Enterprise Development Scheme (SEEDS) and Business Angel Scheme (BAS)
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4. SkillsFuture: $500 to be topped up for everyone above 25…to go for courses
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Home Owners
5. Concessionary maid levies halved from $120 to $60. Levy to be extended to households with children aged below 16
The levy currently applies to households with children below 12, elderly aged 65 and above, and people with disabilities.
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6. GST rebate vouchers to be increased to $300 (from $250), and $150 (from $100) for higher income earners
THANKS FOR THE ANGPOW THARMAN
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Taxes
7. 50% personal income tax rebate for 1.5 million Singaporeans
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8. Increase in tax deduction from 2.5x to 3x for donations
That’s right, you can receive rebates for donating to charities. The math is a little complicated, so here’s a link for you.
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9. Personal income tax rates for top 5% of earners to be raised
For the very rich:
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For everyone else though:
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CPF
10. CPF salary ceiling will be raised from S$5,000 to S$6,000 from 1 Jan next year
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Transport
11. MOE’s Financial Assistance Scheme to include new transport subsidy for needy students
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12. Petrol duty rates to be increased to encourage less car usage…
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…but a one-year road tax rebate will be provided: 20% for cars, 60% for motorcycles and 100% for commercial vehicles using petrol
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Social spending
13. Silver Support will supplement incomes for 20% to 30% of seniors in their retirement years
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14. Healthcare spending is expected to rise from over S$9 billion in 2015 to over S$13 billion in 2020
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15. S$14 billion deployed to the public transport system over the past five years, another $26 billion committed for the next five years
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16. New Changi Airport Development Fund (CADF) set up and with initial injection of S$3 billion into the fund
The fund will be used to develop Terminal 5, along with other future Airport developments
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17. Projected overall spending to reach about 19% to 19.5% of GDP on average over the next five years
Comparatively, we spent 14.6% of last year’s GDP.
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Overall: yay or nay?
Calls for further help for the needy and middle-income groups have seemingly been heeded, at the cost of further government spending. However, the government has decided to take more money from the very rich instead, to supplement this increase in spending. Unless you’re a billionaire, you’re probably receiving help in some way or another.
Verdict: Yay!
Featured image via Prime Minister’s Office YouTube
With references from Channel NewsAsia, Today Online
The post 17 Reactions To The 2015 Budget was created and published on MustShareNews.com.