Singaporeans want tax increases to be used to fund govt initiatives on climate change : Survey

In a climate change survey conducted by Mediacorp, a majority of Singaporeans and PRs (53 percent) called for the use of current and future taxes to fund initiatives to tackle climate change.

96 percent of respondents indicated they either “agree” or “strongly agree” that the government should do more to combat climate change.

The survey was conducted because Environment and Water Resources Minister Masagos Zulkifli said that Singapore has a “pressing priority” to tackle climate change and warned that “time is running out”.

About 1,000 individuals aged 18 and older took part in the self-administered online survey.

Astonishingly, more than half of the survey respondents indicated that efforts to tackle the issue should be funded by current or future taxes.

Forty-seven per cent of respondents also said the Government should fund these efforts by dipping into the national reserves.

Mr Masagos said Singapore will up set up a new office to strengthen it’s capabilities in climate science, and spend an additional S$400 million to upgrade and maintain drains over the next two years.

In January this year, a new Carbon Tax came into effect, which is slated to increase by up to 300 percent by 2023.

Petrol tax was raised by from 10 cents to 20 cents per litre with immediate effect following Budget 2019.

The increase follows a tax hike in 2015, where petrol prices were raised by up to 20 cents per litre.

Last year, the government raised the price of water by 30 percent, in efforts to “educate” Singaporeans to be more conservative with water-use. /TISG