For business owners, the Budget also saw more help given to them. In particular, the measures are expected to significantly aid SMEs in their business models to maximise productivity. To combat the shortage of workers and to restructure the economy, four key measures the government has implemented include:

1)Special Employment Credit
To encourage businesses to employ older Singaporeans

2)Enhance Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) Scheme
To encourage businesses to invest in innovative and productive  ventures

3)Enhance existing schemes
To increase support for existing SMEs, support SME upgrading and productivity

4) One off SME cash grants
Pegged at 5% of a company’s revenue of up to $5000

More information about the Budget can be accessed via this weblink: http://app.singaporebudget.gov.sg/budget_2012/default.aspx

An article by a YP Activist

The question is not; “will I?” rather it is “when will I own the roof over my head”?  One of the matters closest to the hearts of Singaporeans in this year is the cost of housing. Certainly, HDB prices are nowhere near what they used to be.

Party Chairman and Minister for National Development stated that the government was now looking to focus its efforts on securing homes for second time buyers for the next year or two. Currently, schemes and grants do exist for the lower income groups to ease the burden of purchasing houses.

One example of which is the HOPE scheme where a grant of $50,000 is provided to a lower income family to purchase a flat.

While there is certainly a need for the government to address this issue, we must never forget that a house is the only asset many common Singaporeans have. We must do our part in ensuring that it remains in our hands and not squandered in a misadventure.

An article by a YP Activist

According to Mercer, Singapore is the 8th most expensive place to live in the world. Every year the cost of living increases – that is a dynamic of society and economics, one that can never be changed no matter what a government does. This is because of a concept known as inflation, in layman’s terms it’s how the purchasing power of money decreases over time because of increased circulation of a currency.

This is a problem that Singapore and many nations in the developed world face. Perhaps we feel the squeeze of this problem more than the Americans and Europeans do, simply because all our goods are imported. A vast majority of our food supply is imported from neighboring countries in the region, because of this, it is harder for the government to regulate the prices of this goods.

The pro-welfare groups of Singaporeans will call for increased spending ; a subsidy for the lower income groups! Put a price ceiling on rice! Let us not forget for one moment – the government cannot give what it does not first take. Certainly, the government can take from two places, the reserves or increased taxes on the people.

Let’s face it, our savings are finite, the problem may span infinitely, should we deplete our wealth on this problem or find another way to deal with it? Should the government tax the people to solve this issue then, bearing in mind the amount of unhappiness increased transport and GST costs have created, a tax to fund subsidises out of the question and superfluous by nature.

What the government can do is what it has always done, provide jobs for the people and leave the rest up to society. The higher income groups will have to contribute more to aid the rest of society along, for that translate to a more caring and giving society that we hope our Singapore will be.

PERSONAL OPINION PIECE: SINGAPORE IN YET ANOTHER RECESSION?
Contributed by N. Shoba, YP Member

“In Asia, with this global backdrop, China, India and the emerging markets are doing quite well but if America and Europe go into another recession, then I think China and India and the emerging economies will also be affected and vulnerable. Therefore, Singapore has to be watchful.” On 14 August 2011, PM Lee made an indication for Singapore to be alert about the economic condition in his National Day Rally speech. Barely two months later, the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s latest macro-economic review stated that Singapore’s economic growth will stall over the next few quarters before seeing a modest recovery in the later part of Y2012. How prepared is Singapore to surf through Y2012 without being badly affected?

Written by Ibrahim Hasan

One of the best descriptions comes from none other than the man who read out the budget speech, the Finance Minister, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam. Budget 2011, which is one of the most generous in recent years, has been called an ‘Election Budget,’ by quite a few people. However, as Mr Tharman rightfully says, “It is rare for governments, on the eve or during an election year, to be putting aside money, first to pay back past reserves; second, putting it for results that will only show up five, 10, 15 years from now, and in some cases, even further down the road. – So if it is an election budget, it is because it is a Budget of a government that is thinking in the long-term interests of its people. And that is the flag we are nailing to our mast.”