ANNUAL BUDGET STATEMENT

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Debate resumed.

Mr Chew Heng Ching (Eunos GRC): Mr Speaker, Sir, as Chairman of the Estimates Committee for this House, I am compelled to respond to some of the remarks made by earlier speakers. First, it pertains to a remark made by Mr Ling How Doong - he is not in the House - who mentioned that he was ignorant and not aware of what sort of returns we get from our reserves. If one looks at the Budget document under the Overview section at pages 5, 15, 22 and so on, there are enough descriptions and information on the sort of investment incomes that we get from the reserves. I am surprised that this statement should come from Mr Ling How Doong because he is a Member of my Estimates Committee. As Members of the Estimates Committee, we are expected to scrutinise Government expenditure and revenue estimates in detail, and I expect him to understand the format of this document.

The other remark pertains to budget surpluses. I think Members of the House will realise that last year, the Estimates Committee met to review what caused the budget surpluses in the last five years. The Committee made its observations and recommendations to the Ministry of Finance with a view to trying to reduce the budget surpluses. I think this Report of the Estimates Committee was circulated to Members of the House in November last year. It gives a detailed review of the causes of budget surpluses in terms of expenditures and revenues in the last five financial years.

The recommendations and observations go to show that the higher budget surpluses in the last five years were attributed mainly to three factors. Firstly, higher than expected GDP growth. The actual GDP growth was 9-10% compared to an assumed 6-7% growth in the budget every year. Another factor is the higher than expected COE revenues. The last factor is higher development charges arising from rezoning of land for development. These reasons were described in some detail in the Budget Statement by the Minister for Finance in this year's Budget. So I do not wish to touch on them further. But Members of the House may wish to refer to this Report for a detailed analysis of the budget surpluses.

Sir, this FY96 Budget gives every Singaporean something to shout about - school children will get more Edusave grants, both employers and employees will pay lower taxes, HDB dwellers will enjoy utility rebates and have their service and conservancy rebates extended for another year with better adjustments, and various CPF top-up schemes. Even wives and parents of NSmen are rewarded through tax reliefs. Because it is so good, many Members of the Opposition, in particular, have tried to detract by labelling it as an "election budget". But the truth is, as explained earlier by other Members, that we have all played our role well, whether as parents, wives, NSmen, workers or employers, working hard and consistently maintaining a healthy rate of productivity growth, living harmoniously with each other, are rational, determined to achieve our aspirations, and led by a competent Government, we have collectively achieved success. We have therefore, by our own efforts and the will to succeed, made it possible for the Government to be kind and generous with us in this Budget.

Sir, for me, this is the best Budget I have seen in my 12 years as a Member of this House. It is balanced and meets the needs of most, if not all Singaporeans. It is so good that it makes it difficult for many of my constituents this year to fault it, unlike in the past when I had cause to voice some of their justified misgivings in this House. Indeed, Sir, the constituents of Eunos GRC taken as a whole will receive benefits through rebates in rental, SC&CC charges and utility charges alone amounting to about $12.5 million. Sir, our Finance Minister is certainly the envy of many a Finance Minister elsewhere. He is faced with this happy problem of how to reduce taxes and reward Singaporeans in the most equitable manner of achieving success together. Sir, the rebates, tax reliefs and incentives announced in the Budget are quite a mouthful. Many Singaporeans are still not fully aware of them. May I therefore suggest that the Government implement some kind of publicity programme through the media to inform Singaporeans of the changes.

Sir, we should not be embarrassed by our budget surpluses. There is this temptation to want to spend our surpluses more liberally. I urge the Government to resist the clamours for more free handouts without considering whether it would weaken the will to work for Singaporeans. Neither should the Government be tempted to spend more than is necessary in order to narrow the budget surpluses. Instead we should look at how best to use this surplus to achieve our long term national objectives. In particular, Sir, we should use our surpluses to address the structural problems the country will face in the years ahead.

In this regard, Sir, I am arguing for more surpluses to be channelled to the field of education and for the retraining of Singaporeans. I am happy to note that the Government will set aside another $500 million from the surpluses to the Edusave fund. But, Sir, the latter fund only benefits our younger population. The adult population does not benefit from it, at least not directly. Sir, as companies in Singapore regionalise, more and more Singaporeans have to be trained to manage our overseas investments. Many Singaporeans are ill-equipped to do such tasks. Also, as our economy restructures to be a developed one, industries will have to close down and relocate overseas. In the process, some of our adult Singaporeans will be out of job.

I am therefore suggesting that part of the surpluses be channelled to a fund to be called the Regionalisation Training Fund to train Singaporeans in the necessary language skills and management skills to better equip them in their work overseas as we expand regionally. Sir, this proposal of setting up a Regionalisation Training Fund was raised by me last year during the Budget debate. I am raising this again in the hope that the Minister will look at it seriously this time.

Sir, also on education and training, I am proposing that we channel part of the surpluses to a fund to be used for the training of our older and less educated Singaporeans (particularly those in their forties and early fifties) who may be out of job because of closure and relocation of our industries overseas. Many of these Singaporeans are unskilled and have low education and would find difficulty seeking alternative employment in this increasingly competitive environment. Sir, with our longer life span, many of these Singaporeans still have a good 10-20 years of working life ahead of them. We need to give them, so to say, a "second spring" instead of seeing them fade into "the autumn of their twilight years."

Sir, our society has not benefitted from the economic success we have achieved if our social behaviour still lags years behind. When first mentioned, "kiasuism" was thought to be funny. "Kiasuism" is now perceived by some as an acceptable social behaviour, however, shameful it may be. Dramas which used to act out "kiasu" conduct for a laugh has caught on with the audience so much so that some thought that it is the vogue thing to do. We should correct this misconception, and teachers, parents, guardians, while themselves must show their loath at kiasu behaviour, should constantly remind their children and our young ones the importance of social graciousness and good behaviour. Sir, recently our Prime Minister has called for conscious efforts to develop ourselves to be a gracious society. This call cannot be more timely. I fully support this and urge the Minister to review its budget allocation with a view to channelling more funds towards the achievement of this goal of becoming a more gracious society.

Sir, as in most things in the past, I would like to urge the Government through our civil servants to take the lead and set an example for more gracious behaviour. This call again cannot be more timely as we have just implemented the Budgeting for Results and Autonomous Agencies systems in the civil service. We should put courtesy and graciousness high on our priority list for measuring quality of service, efficiency and productivity. We should invest in our civil servants and train them for gracious behaviour and be courteous in their work. I am sure the private sector will follow suit in no time.

Sir, I would like to end my speech in a cautionary note. We have had good budgets for the last 4-5 years, with each budget better than the last. Euphoria and joy will soon be displaced by an expectation that next year's budget must necessarily be even better, otherwise the Government has shortchanged us. This expectation is unrealistic and I would even say dangerous, as we might easily be lulled into complacency and an attitude that the Government has the duty to provide a scintillating budget to please everyone, forgetting that it is really Singaporeans' hard work that had made it possible for the Government to reward us according to our efforts. Singaporeans must therefore remember that so long as we all continue to strive for excellence, increase our productivity, upgrade our skills and stick to the same tried and tested formula that has secured us success and prosperity, Sir, I dare say that this very generous Budget will not be the last nor the best.

With that, I beg to support the Budget.