After Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat delivered the Budget 2019 in Parliament on Monday (18 February) at 3.30pm, netizens reacted negatively and stated that the budget didn’t address key issues.
When Mr Heng began tabling the 2019 Budget, Channel NewsAsia broadcasted the announcement live on their Facebook page. The Facebook Live video garnered over 600 comments where netizens mostly shared their dissatisfaction on the statement.
In the beginning of the reading, many netizens raised their concerns over important issues like minimum wage, bringing in foreign talents, CPF payout, healthcare targeting for the senior citizens as well as Good & Service Tax (GST).
When it comes to minimum wage, some of them wanted the government to introduce a minimum wage for the public, especially for the lower and middle class citizen. They even requested it to be S$1500 monthly.
As for bringing in more foreign talents, a bunch of netizens were unhappy and felt that the government needs to reduce the nation’s dependency on foreign workers, and instead put Singaporeans first in the country. They also said that the country is employing foreign talents in sectors that Singaporeans are capable of handling on their own.
When Mr Heng addressed his statement on Central Provident Fund (CPF), most netizens reacted badly and some even wondered if older citizens can actually retire when the time comes. They added that by holding people’s CPF and increasing their retirement age, it already shows that the government has failed in taking care of Singaporeans. Some even requested the government to support employers to hire older workers.
Speaking of healthcare issues, netizens opined that all the plans under MediShield only allows them to gain slight benefit as they will need to pay more because the hospital cost will increase. A few even requested the government to remove the cap for the usage of MediSave, and they believe this will allow the current ruling government to win the upcoming election. In addition to that, some even hoped that dental care will be covered under MediSave.
Lastly, when Finance Minister was giving his speech on the Good & Service Tax (GST), netizens wanted GST to be abolished altogether. Some even suggested to bring back capital gains tax as well as tax the rich group even more.
