Earlier today (September 16), the Singapore Democratic Party announced the upcoming launch of their party’s manifesto.

In their announcement, the party explains, “A political manifesto is a declaration of a party’s vision and mission, a pronouncement of its plans and policies. This is exactly the purpose of this important publication – a signal of the SDP’s intent to change Singapore for the better”.

Last week, in a video, Secretary-General Dr Chee Soon Juan focused on the issue of the cost of living and housing and touched on some of SDP’s proposed policies in dealing with these issues.

He noted that even though Singapore was already one of the most expensive cities in the world, the incumbents continued to raise prices and taxes.

Furthermore, the SDP drew up a ten-point plan to make the cost of living more bearable.

These include:
1. Cut ministers’ pay to help poor
2. Raise income tax for richest by one per cent
3. Ensure revenue-neutral budget
4. Scrap GST for basic items
5. Enact minimum wage

Dr Chee added that their priority would be to spend prudently. This would be so that they can also keep taxes low.

The SDP also proposed that GST be abolished for essential items such as medicines, basic foodstuff and school supplies. To offset the drop in revenue collection, they suggested that the government increase GST for luxury items such as gold watches, designer brand shoes, or expensive restaurants.

In order to deal with high housing prices, the SDP proposed the Non-Open Market, or NOM flat scheme.

Dr Chee explained that the SDP estimated that the cost of land alone makes up for more than half of the price of HDB flats. Under their NOM idea, the government removes the land cost from HDB prices, and would only charge Singaporeans for the material, labour, service and administrative costs in building HDB flats.

The SDP is set to launch their manifesto on September 28, at Colonial@Scotts, from 2pm to 4pm.

/TISG

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