The increase in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from 7% to 9% will be mitigated through the scaling down of tax relief received by travellers, said Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat. Mr Heng, in delivering the Singapore Budget 2019 in Parliament on Monday (18 Feb), said that given “the rise in international travel” into and through Singapore, the Government will …

International human rights lawyer, speaker and author M Ravi is launching a new website which he defines as “an extension of a personal blog page and much more”. It will serve as an account of his work spanning over 16 years when he was in legal practice and the work that he currently does now on international human rights law …

Local footballer Benjamin Davis who was earlier in the news over his bid to defer his National Service has been said to have defaulted on his National Service (NS) obligations This is revealed by the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) on Monday in response to queries by state media, Channel NewsAsia. MINDEF said, “Mr Benjamin Davis is a National Service (NS) …

Singapore is home to an ageing population and even now, 1 in 4 people are over 55 years old. As such, a big chunk of the budget is being earmarked to help support Singaporeans entering their silver years. This year, an extra S$3.1 billion was earmarked for premium subsidies and other forms of support for Singaporeans, bringing the total up …

Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam told Channel NewsAsia that the trend towards accepting cannabis for medical use is driven by the “power of money and propaganda”, as he charged pharmaceutical companies with hiding their intentions behind a smokescreen. Last December, Thailand became the first country in Southeast Asia to legalise the use of cannabis for medical purposes, although …

The results of the 2018 Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Advanced Level (GCE A-Level) examination will be released on this coming Friday (22 February). This was announced by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in a press release late week. The ministry stated that school candidates may collect their results from their respective schools from 2.30 pm that day. It noted …

About 7,700 individuals received inaccurate healthcare and intermediate- and long-term care subsidies due to a software error in the NCS computer system, said the Ministry of Health on 16 Feb. NCS is an information and communications technology (ICT) and communications engineering services provider. It is a subsidiary of the Singtel Group. The affected where individuals whose applications and renewals of …

It was reported that a Malaysian engineer Soh Jun Sheng, who is a Singapore Permanent R, was sentenced to two years’ jail by the court today (18 Feb). He was found guilty of stealing computer equipment from the government agency, Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA). He was employed by the government-linked company NCS in March last year – the same …

Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat revealed the long awaited details for the new Merdeka Generation Package (MGP) during the budget presentation today in Parliament (18 Feb). The package will benefit Singaporeans born in 1949 or earlier who missed out on the Pioneer Generation Package but obtained citizenship by 1996. The MGP is intended to help eligible Singaporeans with their medical …

Dr Tan Cheng Bock recently asked, “What’s happening to our reserves? Are our reserves all gone?” He will not get any answers because one of the country’s most closely guarded secrets is the nature and extent of the reserves. Even President Ong Teng Cheong came across a brickwall when he tried to find out about the reserves. It is a …