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Budget planners on fiscal policy, tax and role of reserves
Each year, during Budget season, there is public debate on the hows and whys of Singapore's fiscal policy. The Straits Times speaks to officers at the Finance Ministry to find out more.
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The Ministry of Finance's fiscal policy director Peter Lim (far left) and land and infrastructure programmes director Mark Tan speak about issues such as the Government being able to draw on the nation's reserves only up to a certain point, how increasing taxes could make Singapore uncompetitive, and about each Budget being more than just a one-off "hongbao".
ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
Grace Ho Senior Political Correspondent , Grace Ho
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At The Treasury - home to the Ministry of Finance - the coronavirus has been the subject of marathon meetings over the past month, many of which fiscal policy director Peter Lim has been intimately involved in.
He emerged from what one assumes was such a meeting, an hour late for this interview. That same week, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Heng Swee Keat would announce that a relief package was in the works, to help the transport and tourism sectors hardest hit by the viral epidemic.
