I was looking forward to clarification from MOF during COS but unfortunately none of my questions were answered.
What particularly surprised me was when Minister Indranee said that she did not have the figures on how much the effective corporate income tax rate must be raised by to raise the same revenue as a 2% hike in GST.
During budget debate, Minister Lawrence Wong said that personal income tax would have to be raised to 42% to achieve the same revenue as the GST hike. If the Government had considered all alternatives, surely they would already have the corresponding figure for corporate tax? Nonetheless, I shall proceed to file a Parliamentary Question as requested by Minister Indranee.
View my speech on GST hike here.