What items would you put at the top of your Wish List for Budget 2010? Why?

Against the backdrop of a growing economy albeit a slower one, we should make 2010’s budget neutral and focus on building on structural and long term measures to ensure the sustainability of our growth engines. There should be certain conservatism in fiscal and monetary policies. As we turned the corner in 2009, we cannot afford the quick-fix rescue packages which were generally broad-based relief type’s measures to save businesses and jobs.



With disproportionate growth and with a Gini coefficient, which is used to indicate income inequality, remaining persistently high, Workfare’s continued roll-out is important to help supplement the income of low-wage workers. The formula should be tweaked to put more money in the hands of the workers so that affordability of common staples and living expenses can remain sanely affordable to the low-wage workers. Inflationary pressure is likely to rise for food commodity and oil and this will exceed any marginal increase in salary for these workers.



The Government should also look at boosting businesses with new measures like providing tax holidays for new business start-ups for a longer period. To attract offshore risk capital to Singapore to support the entrepreneurial eco-system, the Government should consider providing the risk capital with fixed years of tax holidays so that their risk value will drop. This will gravitate risk capital from the region to Singapore. Investments in the research and developments or green initiatives should receive longer period of tax holiday.



Singapore can differentiate itself by introducing bold fiscal measures to boost investments and increase market liquidity.