Pritam Singh: The govt collected more revenue in the 2021 fiscal year than in the pre-pandemic 2019 one

In Parliament on Monday (Jul 4), Pritam Singh asked about the government’s fiscal position and whether there might be room to provide more financial help for lower- and middle-income families.

Mr Singh pointed out that the Government had collected even more revenue in the 2021 fiscal year than the 2019 fiscal year before the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

The Leader of the Opposition and Workers’ Party chief Pritam Singh (Aljunied GRC) posed his questions to the Minister for Finance. Mr Singh said that tax revenue came up to $74.76 billion last year, more than 10 per cent higher compared with the $67 billion in 2019, and stamp duty collection hit $6.7 billion in the last fiscal year, 61 per cent higher than in 2019.

Stamp Duty collection was 61 per cent higher over the same period, hitting $6.7 billion for the fiscal year 2021, ending March this year. He asked for the Minister’s assessment of the government’s current fiscal position and how much room it has to introduce more cost-of-living support measures for lower- and middle-income families and small businesses in Singapore.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said the higher revenue collected was largely due to property and vehicle transactions, which are sentiment-based and may not happen year after year, while the lower spending was due in some way to fortune as the Covid-19 Omicron wave turned out milder than expected.

“Let’s not count on these once-off instances to fund our longer-term structural spending increases,” he added. /TISG