Ex-PAP MP describes this year’s Budget as a “Blockbuster” one

Former-PAP parliamentarian Inderjit Singh has called this year’s budget a “Blockbuster Budget” and congratulated DPM Heng for delivering “a comprehensive budget that addresses most aspects of Singapore”.

In a social media post on Thursday evening (Feb 20), the former People’s Action Party (PAP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Ang Mo Kio praised the government for reacting to the COVID-19 outbreak quickly and restructuring their budget in light of it.

He explained, “Typically the whole budget process takes at least 6 to 9 months and is ready before the beginning of the new year.

However the Covid-19 hit us in January which means the government would have had to go back to redo the budget”.

He wrote: “This time, we expect the Coronavirus issue to last longer than the SARS. Furthermore, this time Singapore is a lot more dependent on China than in 2003 so the impact on the economic is expected to be a lot more severe”.

Referring to what many have termed as a “goodie bag budget”, or a “hong bao” budget, Mr Inderjit said that “It was therefore not a surprise that the help package is significant and is larger than the one done during the Financial crisis of 2008 and 2009”.

Praising the coverage of the Budget for the most part, Mr Inderjit qualified: “Understandably, the issue of distressed supply chains has not been directly addressed in this budget. It will be worth for companies to address this and for the government to also look at what assistance they can provide to help companies diversify their supply chain”.

Ultimately, he said, “I congratulate the Finance Minister for delivery of a comprehensive budget that addresses most aspects of Singapore – at the personal, corporate and economy levels”. /TISG