Deep Dive Podcast: Budget 2025 is more than just an election budget

1 month ago 67

A bigger tranche of vouchers, more generous rebates and more investments in the local workforce were some of the hallmarks of Budget 2025.

Professor Emeritus of Finance at Singapore Management University Annie Koh and Assistant Professor Chua Yeow Hwee from Nanyang Technological University tell Steven Chia and Crispina Robert why the “budget goodies” are not just about the upcoming elections.

Here's an excerpt from the conversation:

Annie Koh, professor at SMU:
If you relate it to what Steven was asking, "Alright, I'm worried about jobs, I'm worried about retrenchments," you need to look at it side by side with the job assurance scheme and the programmes that are coming from there.

And if you can get productivity levels up, then the higher wages could be justified. So we actually have to look at the whole thing as Singaporeans, not just as consumers, but Singaporeans as producers as well.

Steven Chia, host:
Because that way, if I can do better, then my income will increase, and therefore I won't feel the pinch so much, right?

Chua Yeow Hwee, assistant professor at NTU:
That's right. And to add on ... CDC vouchers shouldn't be normalised too much. So in fact, everybody's expecting CDC vouchers all the time. Me too, definitely (but) I don't think we should normalise it.

Steven:
But it's already normalised. It's too late, right? I mean, now we all expect it. We keep getting it.

Yeow Hwee:
We keep getting it. So unlike GST vouchers, which are to help the lower income households, which is more formalised in a way.

So I would think we need to be very careful that we should not overly celebrate CDC vouchers. It just means things are more expensive and we need some support. Hopefully, with more upgrading of skills, (higher) incomes, these CDC vouchers would go away.

Crispina Robert, host:
So the longer term thing is that hopefully your income will go up, and then you would not need this kind of help for your daily expenses.

Annie:
Or the level of help may not be as high, and it may be calibrated for those who are at the bottom of the pyramid. So it will be a little bit more differentiated and customised.

Steven:
So ironically, when they stop giving us CDC vouchers, it means things are better, because it means your job is better. You're getting paid more, you don't need the support anymore.

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