Friday, February 28, 2014

Money Matters

Recently, Lawrence Wong, Chan Chun Sing and Grace Fu were serendipitiously caught on camera, nodding off in parliament as the budget was presented. No wonder, the glaring omission in the grand show and tell was the traditional gee-whiz powerpoint slide-fest favoured by the Old Man. And for good reason too, it would showcase the biggest slice of the pie once again goes to.... (drum roll).... Defence, to the tune of $12.6 billion or 22.2% of the total expenditure for FY2014.

Taking second priority in the grand scheme of things is Education, allocated $11.5 billion or 20.3%. They don't want our kids to get any smarter, not when they can spot a Lieutenant Colonel at Pasir Ris Camp beating the daylights out of a stray dog with an truncheon and recognise that as an act of cruelty to animals. The outraged father said his son and 8 others were threatened to be charged if they did not keep their traps shut, not exactly the best of education in the military honour code.

With all those billions to spend at will, it makes you wonder why they still need the hike in town council charges. Maybe Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam should be blamed for announcing, as part of the budget measures, one-off Service & Conservancy Charge (S&CC) rebates of one to three months. That should be the signal for 8 People’s Action Party-run town councils to get greedy. The other 7 PAP town councils had already jumped the gun and implemented their increase in 2012.

Sembawang Town Council General Manager Soon Min Sin said, “With rising costs, some town councils will run into deficits even with the help of government grants in FY 13/14 and FY14/15 if there is no revision in S&CC.” Some of those rising costs may be traceable to "cost saving measures such as the implementation of LED lights". We don't know where they "leverage on bulk procurements" - hopefully not from some $2 company -  but 4 LED bulbs in a lift should easily cost more than $100, to do the job of a $6 fluorescent tube. Which begs the question, how many PAP town council employees do you need to change out a light bulb.......

The S&CC rates are not exactly small potatoes, they range from $19.50 (one-room flat) to $88.00 per month. Depending on where you stay, the hikes represent 2.5 to 5%, every month, for the rest of your life serving the 30 year mortgage. Tharman's act of kindness is good only for one to three months.

36 comments:

  1. That really begs the question why do they give subsidy on one hand & then take it back in the form of monthly increase on the other hand. What has happened to those surpluses that they gamble away as investments, this never reveal ? Or it has become the untouchable cash assets of those Town Councils as feared ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Another question why do they say costs have increased AFTER they have surplus funds transferred to the Govt Sinking Fund ?

      Is that the general understanding as we are told?

      Delete
    2. You must be a new citizen?

      Delete
  2. Do not be happy when they give you subsidy. Take for example the year we do not need to pay licence fee on TV. When you think you have some spare cash, they increase the property tax.

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    Replies

    1. "Take for example the year we do not need to pay licence fee on TV...."

      ....you believed them and voted for them, right? Me neber voted for them nor do I trust anyone that had voted for them.

      Sinkies are all the same. Gimmie, gimmie, gimmie more and still not enuff! Now, whines and bitch here and elsewhere. They blame the PAP, but neber on themselves.

      Delete
    2. Gotta love the above classic testicle carrier and cum licker of the famed Internet brigade.

      Delete
  3. Money matters? It matters to you because you are squeezed. It also matters to them because they cannot seem to get enough of it. As Ng Teng Fong's son Phillip once told a NUS commencement gathering, greed is good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Money matters? It matters to you because you are squeezed....."

      ....if you are on the squeeze sides, no doub you will be doing the same others. Now, you are kicked out you join the whinnying sides.

      Delete
    2. What talking you? Damn cum licker. Can't even string a simple sentence together, huh?

      Delete
    3. 6:22 pm is referring to 11:40 am.

      Delete
  4. Sleeping on the job or nothing to contribute?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nothing more to contribute when it's all scripted out for you by decree.

      Delete
  5. The reserves steadily building up in Town councils is another big question. Why do town council need such huge reserves? Who benefit from the huge pool of money?

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  6. The Old Man said:

    ‘Without a strong defence, there will be no Singapore...It will become a satellite, cowed and intimidated by its neighbours.’

    ‘If we do not have this strong SAF (Singapore Armed Forces), we are vulnerable to all kinds of pressures from both Malaysia and Indonesia.’

    ‘We are not vulnerable? They can besiege you. You’ll be dead,’

    ‘If we are not vulnerable, why do we spend 5 to 6 per cent of GDP (gross domestic product) year after year on defence....Are we mad? This is a frugal government.’

    Indeed anyone in this current Administration would be mad to dispute him. What do you think?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You will only know2/28/2014 5:49 PM

      I say the litmus test is in the pudding, if the India riots case was any indication. I hope the crazywNorth Korea tyrant decides to mis-fire a nuclear over to us, and we will be able to see how solid and good and prepared" our Defence and Paper Generals really are made of.

      Remember..
      All Communications tools were down.
      The Rhino has no water
      We have baton but is used for defence not attack
      Not trained in riots outbreak
      We are outnumbered
      blah blah blah....

      I say we bring it on and put our billions and trillions dollars Mindef to their manly test!!!

      Delete
    2. Why would either country want to beseige us? What do they get in return? Malaysia kicked us out remember?

      SG is spending as much as Taiwan did on defence in 2010. For Taiwan's size and threat level, I can understand.

      Delete
    3. //anyone in this current Administration would be mad to dispute//
      They won't dispute him so long as their pay check is under his control.
      Truth of the matter is that Singapore won't be able to withstand a siege longer than a week (the Old Man's own estimate). Our neighbours don't need fancy F35 or ungraded F16s, all they need to do is to swamp us with a human wave, whether making the crossing by sampans ro swimming across like Mas Selamat. If the intent is to lob a few shells at our enemies, we have more ammunition than needed. What we need for long term survival is friendly rapport with our neighbours, not bickering over naming of navy vessels or bitching over forest fires. But then, what does a thug understand about diplomacy?

      Delete
    4. It takes more than hardware to build up a Military Defence - it needs skilled, dedicated, loyal and committed soldiers and generals, not weekend citizen soldiers and paper generals. The shortcomings of our Civil Defence has already been exposed in the mayhem of the Little India riot. The SAF has yet to be tested.

      Delete
    5. All hogwash comments, brains similar to the British prior to Jap crosse into Singapore from the North.

      Have anyone consider "within"? All the jet fighters, submarines and offensive weapon gonna to do when facing your neighbor, brothers, fren or even your father and mother, Shot them?

      Delete
  7. At least Sembawang TC manager bothered to announce the new rates; in Potong Pasir, the manager did not even bother to tell the new rates.

    And how did he justify the increase (with 1 month notice)? He cunningly announced that since electricity rates in 2014 has increased compared to the last time SC&C were raised. But hang on! In 2007 Chiam was the MP, remember? Sitoh Yi Pin came along in 2011, and rates in 2011 were similar compared to 2014, how come for 3 years they could survive without raising rates? Oh ya, becaus ethey changed to the far more expensive LED bulbs, created new gardens for their supporters and used town council water and electricity to in their new gardens! And they said they have to pay for lift upgrades! Why didn't Sitoh tell everyone that SC&C were going up when asking us to support the lift upgrade? Sneaky sneaky animals!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. historical electricity rates are found on SP website at following link. In 2011, the quarterly rates ranged from 24 to 27.2 cents per kWhr. Since then electricity rates have fallen slowly to today's 25ct per kwhr. All town councils citing higher electricity tariffs shud tell their MP (here Sitoh) that this smacks of l;ack of integrity!


      http://www.singaporepower.com.sg/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/pcd!3aportal_content!2fcom.sp.SPEPCustomization!2fcom.sp.SP_Default_Framework!2fcom.sp.SP_Custom_Desktop!2fframeworkPages!2fcom.sp.SP_Custom_Default_Framework_Page!2fcom.sap.portal.innerpage?windowId=WID1332135032094&NavigationTarget=navurl://41c8e6a3faf48bb168af2c222faa8ee4&windowId=WID1332134938209

      Delete
  8. Tell PAP Town Councils what you really think of their S&CC price increase.
    Vote Opposition in GE 2016.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yea, now vote for opposition!! When did you change sides?

      Delete
  9. Let's Hope This Never Happens In Singapore:

    Mt Gox Files For Bankruptcy After $473 Million In Bitcoins Disappeared

    Mt. Gox owner Mark Karpelès said technical issues had opened the way for fraudulent withdrawals, and he apologized to customers.
    "There was some weakness in the system, and the bitcoins have disappeared. I apologize for causing trouble"

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-28/mt-gox-files-bankruptcy-after-473-million-bitcoins-disappeared

    ReplyDelete
  10. I guess PAP supporters could always argue Singapore is still better than Africa or Somalia, what. I wonder why they always compare Singapore to worse off countries instead of similar or better ones like Hong Kong or South Korea. Is SG so weak and so badly managed that SG could only be compared to 3rd world ones? Can't be, we do have the highest paid ministers in the world after all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When it's their salaries ... they benchmark against the highest salaries in Singapore.

      When it comes to what they have accomplished for Singapore, .... they benchmark against the lowest performing countries in the world.

      Cherry picking .... they are just a bunch of shameless cheery pickers.
      Their high salaries make a mockery of the sacrifices made by our National Service boys and the Pioneer Generation.
      Their pro alien policies cheapen the value of our citizenship.

      Vote out the bastards!

      Delete
    2. and you compare to Swiss, Right? Lao Goa promised you that and you didn't get it, but others did!

      I never voted for Swiss standard of living and dun want it. You ask for it! So be happy.

      Delete
  11. “When I made the decision to vote PAP in 2006,
    pay was not a key factor.
    I had some ground to believe that my family would not suffer a drastic change in the standard of living even though I experienced a drop in my income.
    So it is with this Pro Alien Policy and loss of my job.
    If the balance is tilted further in the future, it will make it harder for any one to vote PAP.

    Grace Fu ... I mean jobless Singaporean PMET

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "When I made the decision to vote PAP in 2006...pay was not a key factor."

      In 2006 GE your party won by 66.6% thanks to you. It also helps younger Lee to continue where Loa Lee and Loa Goa left.

      In 2006, think of yourself and family, F***K the rest of Sinkies. Now, jobless, can only say, F***K you!!
      I can guarantee, will never find another job, better learn to drive taxi, collecting cardboard or begging on the streets. You deserve no sympathy from anyone except your kind who had voted the same, and deserve it!!

      Delete
  12. Money matters most.
    There are no respectable people, much less leaders worth more attention than money.
    With no money, nobody will care about You, not even your leaders.
    You die your business. But, with money, they will respect or more correctly carry your balls.

    MOONEY REALLY MATTERS.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Garment "spends" money on mediave top ups", you don;lt see the money which goes to buy higher premium Medishield Life. Money gets channelled into insurance companies and then straight into the fund managers' coffer. Garment "subsidizess" your town council SC&C for 2 months, but the town council raise the SC&C fees for the rest of your days. Like medisave top up, you see nothing. But the town councils are making surpluses and pumps tens of millions each year into "sinking" funds which goes to fund managers. See the pattern?

    There are other creative accounting tricks: they say they subsidize your medical bills and spend $7b on healthcare. Leong Sze Hian asked: does garmen include land and building costs of hospitals to arrive at the un-subsidized medical bills? If so, their "subsidies" are non-cash, meaning in terms of real cash budget surpluses, its a lot more than they reported each year. prof Balding, are you thinking hard now? And why haven't there been trolls from MoF here lately to rectify our conspiracy theories? We miss you please come back!!

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  14. If it is not given to us in cash;
    the subsidies are not real.
    Do PAP Ministers accept only $1 million dollars in cash or $1 million dollars in subsidy or CPF top up?

    ReplyDelete