[guffaw]

gst is a tax that covers all people who spend money.
those who spend more are tax more. spend less tax less. in a way this way people with ability to spend is tax more. this will covers those people who run business that is not tax. example illegal businesses, those who can claim tax relief legally etc.  people who come into singapore to use the infrastructure as well.

the downside is: those people who has low ability to spend like low income group, no income depending on cpf life for retirement will feel the hit most. as there is little buffer for the increased in prices. reduce value of their same buying power.

therefore the need to and must do thing is to give back more then the tax amount to these groups of people affected by gst increased and has little buffer for the increased.

the other downside is gst causing inflation. businesses will feel increased in cost due to gst increased. this is reduced by the gst input/output tax system where only the value added part is tax. however there is still an increased. in high margin business this will become more pronounce like pure service trade and gst registered.
so causing inflation is inevitable. however businesses should be monitor so as not to over inflate prices in the  gst increased. in a way this is difficult as prices of thing are already increasing and business are already increasing prices before gst increased.

so gst good or no good depends on how it is implemented.

one of the thing government can do is to look harder at reducing waste. improving efficiency. so that overall cost of government remain low relative to revenue. looking harder can be done by dividing each process into smaller details and examine if it can be removed or improve so as to reduce cost. after all big things are made up of small things. look at small things to improve big things. hope my 1 cent worth of thinking helps.

healthy, happy and good new year ahead to all my country man.

Gst is actually a regressive tax.