Debate on Annual Budget Statement

Debate resumed.

Mr Speaker: Mr Lim Biow Chuan.

6.59 pm

Mr Lim Biow Chuan (Mountbatten): Sir, I support the Budget Statement by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister. I appreciate the efforts by the Government for the financial policy of the Government to look after everyone. There are provisions to help individuals, help families, workers and businesses.

Many people view the Budget Statement as simply an announcement of the goodies which the Government dishes out for its citizens. I really hope that we can change that mindset. The financial policy of the Government must be not just to help our citizens tide over their current issues but also to provide a roadmap for Singapore's future. If the Government does not plan for the future, then we are merely putting out fire every time a crisis happens.

Sir, there are just four items that I would like to talk about.

First is cost of living. We had an extensive debate in Parliament in November last year, about the increased costs of living. Thus, I am glad that the Government continues to acknowledge the increased costs of living and has enhanced the Assurance Package given to the tune of $1.9 billion so that everyone benefits and those who need more help get a little bit extra.

The disbursement of cash, GST vouchers, U-Save rebates, S&CC rebates and CDC Vouchers will certainly help residents cope with the increased costs of living. It should not be seen as an "ang pow" or as gift to citizens, but it is meant to alleviate the increased expenses that every household is facing today. However, my concern is that such cash, CDC Vouchers and other rebates cannot be a long-term solution. After a while, citizens may keep asking for more and more cash handouts and rebates. Eventually, we may possibly develop a crutch mentality for such handouts.

Sir, I worry for the day when due to exigencies like another COVID-19 pandemic and the Government cannot balance its Budget, what then will the Government do?

Hence, I wish to urge the Government to review the reasons for the increasing costs and to find ways to mitigate such increases.

Many businessmen that I speak to complain that the two main reasons for costs inflation is firstly, escalating land costs; and secondly, labour costs.

The businessmen lament that if the Chief Valuer continues to assess properties at a high price, then the rental of shops, offices and other industrial buildings may never come down. A case in point is when the Government rejected a bid for the Marina Gardens Crescent site because the bid was too low. This means that if the Government maintains that the right price for land is a higher price based on the valuation set by the Government, then land costs will always remain high, and this will in turn cascade down to the ultimate user of the properties, who are the tenants.

Sir, I urge the Government to consider setting some form of conditions or restrictions on the sale price or rental price for some commercial properties so that we can moderate the rental prices of properties, and hence, keep the cost of land down.

For labour costs, I believe that many businessmen gripe about being unable to find workers for some of the less-desired work that Singaporeans shun. This shortage of workers can be seen clearly in the cleaning industry where many cleaning companies simply cannot find cleaners, for example for the Town Council conservancy contracts or the cleaning contracts for the hawker centres. So, I urge the Government to review the foreign worker dependency ratio in areas where we are quite certain that Singaporeans will not want to work. This will help businesses survive and help keep the costs of labour more manageable.

Next, I will talk about preparing for the future. I applaud the efforts of the Government to strengthen SkillsFuture. The programme was launched in 2015 and each Singaporean received a credit of $500 into their account. A further top-up to the SkillsFuture Credit was made in 2020. The SkillsFuture programme is an important principle that learning is for life; every Singaporean must do their part to continually upgrade themselves.

Sir, I confess that it took me almost six years before I used the SkillsFuture Credit to attend a Vietnamese course from a language school. It has been many years since I attended formal lessons in classes. As expressed by the hon Member Dr Wan Rizal, I was very nervous about having to attend classes and eventually I was told that I had to pass a test before I could make a claim for the SkillsFuture Credit. But these lessons has allowed me to build up confidence that with some effort and perseverance, we will be able to adapt to learn new skills. So, my intent is to try to pick up conversational Bahasa Melayu sometime this year or next. And sometime later, I would like to take up a basic course in plumbing at ITE so that I can learn some life skills or take some courses to learn how to maximise the use of AI to improve my life.

But, Sir, the important message from the Government is that each one of us is responsible for equipping ourselves for the future – whether it is for self-improvement or to improve our career prospects, that is for each individual to decide. And for citizens in their 40s or 50s, having the $4,000 credit and the opportunity to learn updated skills to enhance their employability is so important. They can also tap on various other Skills Development Fund grants to help pay for their courses.

Next, Sir, I would like to talk about supporting the retrenched workers. In March 2017, I had asked the Government to consider mandatory retrenchment benefits for workers who had lost their jobs due to retrenchment. In my speech made seven years ago, I had said that for the worker who is retrenched without any compensation, it is a frustrating time for him as he struggles to provide for his family. Thus, I am truly glad that the Government had in principle agreed that we can do more to support workers who are involuntarily unemployed because displaced workers are already straining to make ends meet. I look forward to hearing more details of the scheme so that citizens who lose their jobs involuntarily can have some temporary relief while they re-skill themselves and find another job.

Finally, supporting the retirees. Sir, within my estate, there are several retirees living in private properties who are either living off their pension or living on their savings. They have worked hard their entire life to contribute towards building up Singapore. And some of them have the fortune to invest their savings into buying a private property for their golden years where they hope to live the best part of their life. The Assurance Package has certainly helped them and I want to express my deepest appreciation to the Finance Minister and to the Government for sharing part of Budget 2024 to residents living in private properties.

Some retirees are better off than others. But for those who have no other source of income other than their savings or pension, I wish to make a pitch for them and to ask for a review of the owner-occupation property tax hike. I appreciate the Government's gesture for adjusting the Annual Value bands for owner occupied residential tax rates. But for this group of retirees without income, the increase in tax rates last year has caused them distress.

May I ask the Government to consider a special property tax relief for this small group of people. The 24-month instalment does not help them because it is still the same tax amount payable by these owners which they will have to dig into their savings, nor do they benefit from the other tax measures like the income tax rebate because they do not have any income.

So, Sir, I urge the Government to consider showing appreciation for this small group of retirees without any income by acknowledging their contributions to Singapore and by offering them a special property tax relief.

Sir, I look forward to the Government's response and I repeat my support for Budget Statement 2024.

Mr Speaker: Mr Lim, you are a good role model of life-long learning – lawyer, future plumber and for those who do not know, he is also a black-belter in Taekwondo.

Mr Speaker: Ms Poh Li San.

7.07 pm

Ms Poh Li San (Sembawang): Mr Speaker Sir, I am in favour of the 2024 Budget, in particular, the $3.5 billion allocated to Age Well SG to assist seniors to age actively, healthily and happily. I look forward to adding more senior-friendly facilities and amenities in our housing estates. However, I hope that beyond adding hardware, we can also use the funds for heart-ware programmes

There are two areas I would like to address. One, inter-generational preparation and safeguards towards degenerative ageing conditions like dementia, and two, programmes that will increase social sustainability amongst the elderly.

In my October 2022 Adjournment Motion, I shared three ideas on impending dementia emergency for inclusion in the Healthier SG framework. Today, I would like to highlight how dementia and community mental health efforts can be part of a broader social-health integration.

In recent years, as more caregivers come forward to share their struggles caring for loved ones living with dementia, Singaporeans are increasingly aware of this condition. By 2030, there will be around 152,000 persons projected to be at high risk of dementia.

Presently, almost every child is using digital devices. This is a worrying trend. In 2022, an American study detailed how, Gen X, Y and Z, and even younger generational youths will have a further four-to-six-fold increase in risk of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. This is largely due to the prevalent use of computers, mobile screens and digital computing.

Dementia as a societal reality will affect our population as a whole. MOH should consider commissioning similar studies to look into how we can prepare for the fight against dementia.

At Sembawang West, we have initiated some programmes and these are some examples. Back in October 2022 and at around the same time of my previous Adjournment speech on dementia, the Sembawang West team brought together a panel of community leaders, local caregivers and people living with dementia. The purpose was to discuss the difficulties that the caregivers face and for the community leaders to understand the user experiences these individuals would prefer.

Since then, regular discussions facilitated by AWWA CREST and Dementia Singapore have been organised. Together with AWWA CREST, Republic Polytechnic and People's Association and grassroots volunteers, the working group also convened a four-day hackathon for hyperlocal dementia ideas for the Woodlands region.

In addition, a Community Living Resource initiative for the Woodlands Region will be launched soon. This will be organised by agencies such as Care Corner, Club Heal and Sembawang Town Council.

Earlier this year on 6 January, our local ground-up Sembawang-Woodlands Dementia Search Activation Network (D-San) Telegram group was featured at the #DementiaFriendlySG exhibition at the National Museum.

We are glad to see how the awareness and public campaigns of dementia-friendliness have spread across Singapore since the first dementia-friendly community was launched in 2012 at Yishun. These DementiaFriendlySG efforts could only be possible with our "many hands on Deck" collective efforts across the various community partners in Singapore over this past decade.

I would like to acknowledge the contributions from the founding members of our Dementia Workgroup at Sembawang West – Soh Lai Yee, MaryAnn Khoo, Nicodemus Ching, Samuel Lau, Noraini Yusof and Carol Tan. We appreciate what you have done for us.

On another note, I would like to highlight what many of us are very concerned about these days – mental wellness of caregivers.

Many of my fellow MPs have been speaking about mental wellness. But in the context of dementia, many caregivers living with people with dementia are likely to be psychologically impacted. We have to ensure that all caregivers and community volunteers are regularly monitored and that they are constantly supported by social workers.

My next point is about the integration of health and social services. More synergies can be unleashed if service boundaries across health and social services are integrated.

MOH campaigns such as Healthier SG, National Mental Health and Wellbeing and Action Plan for Successful Aging are efforts towards achieving a healthier nation. Oftentimes, these objectives can be quite similar.

Our medical, health and social services are structured to serve different boundaries across Singapore. Restructured hospitals are clustered intuitively to serve the East, North, Central, and West and South regions of Singapore. As a result, professionals from agencies such as the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) and MSF have to understand their service boundary in detail while also being well-informed of the service boundaries of other services. Some services such as MSF's co-funded programmes like the Family Service Centres have bespoke boundaries based on the geography of where the majority of social needs to be focused. Other services such as AIC-co-funded programmes like CREST and COMIT mimic grassroots and constituency boundaries so that they can have greater synergy with the grassroot leaders.

MSF's Social Service Office (SSO) and AIC's Silver Generation Office (SGO) are located all over Singapore with the intention to develop the networks of ComLink and promoting active aging respectively. These regional offices, despite being similar in nature, have different considerations in determining their service boundaries, like MSF's SSO using the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA's) planning area regions and the AIC's SGO using constituency boundaries.

The issue is not in having service boundaries, but rather in having disparate and differing methods in deciding service boundaries.

Healthier SG requires a seamless coordination between the medical, social and community services and different approaches may lead to increased friction for professionals and make it more difficult for local ground-up social-health coordination by the various community agencies and medical institutions.

We must decisively synchronise our regional medical and social services in their service boundary in order to ensure long-term medical-community partnership. Each town can offer a suite of services across the medical-social spectrum, advancing local medical-social integration. This synergy would exponentially improve the community social-health integration and strengthen our overall national heart-ware resilience.

It may be big step forward, but it may also be necessary if we wish to have a seamless integrated social-health system. These plans will provide Singaporeans with greater access to community senior and mental health services at locales where they live.

I hope MOH will consider strengthening the resilience and heart-ware of communities and integrating the service boundaries across health and social services. Mr Speaker, Sir, I support the Budget.