The vote on Finance Minister Lawrence Wong’s very first Budget speech are in, and the results of a survey show a mixed bag of plusses and minuses.
The key takeaways are the following: 60 per cent of the survey’s respondents are unhappy with the looming Goods and Services Tax (GST) increase, and the respondents rated the speech an average of 6.1 out of 10.
In its annual post-Budget survey, Blackbox Research, a top market research firm here, polled 750 adults in Singapore in the 48 hours after Mr Wong spoke last Friday, to find out what they found favourable and unfavourable in the 2022 Budget.
While the increase in the GST rate from 7 per cent to 9 per cent, first announced by then Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat in 2018, will take effect in two stages, in 2023 and 2024, as Singapore’s economy continues to recover, Mr Wong still spoke about the increase.
Blackbox’s survey found that only 44 per cent believe that the offsets announced for families would be enough to mitigate the impact of the GST hike.
The 6.1 out of 10 rating of Mr Wong’s speech is less than one percentage point (0.8) lower than Mr Heng’s 2021 Budget speech.
In comparison, Mr Heng’s Budget speech in 2020, the first year of the Covid pandemic, was rated a 6.7. In 2019, respondents rated his speech 5.8 out of ten.
As for higher taxes for the wealthy that Mr Wong discussed on Feb 18, which he dscribed as necessary to generate more revenue to meet the rising healthcare needs of Singapore’s ageing society, 40 per cent viewed this favourably.
Here are the other ratings::
Overall, a little more than a quarter of respondents (28 per cent) consider themselves as “winners” in this Budget, according to the findings from Blackbox.
Thirty-one per cent of respondents said they believe the measures will help “all Singaporeans”, while over half — 55 per cent — agree that Budget was tailored to help more low-income households or earners.
The groups believed to benefit the least from Budget 2022 are high-income households and top earners but also middle-income households and earners.
Summing up public reaction, David Black, CEO of Blackbox Research, said: “Our annual post Budget survey shows how fragile Singaporeans are feeling at present. After two long years battling a pandemic and growing global uncertainty, the Government’s decision to take stock and chart a more sustainable fiscal direction for the future may be the right one but it is clear the public will need to be brought up to speed and handheld as we move forward.” /TISG