SINGAPORE: Singapore Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat will deliver the 2018 Budget Statement in Parliament on 19 February this year, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) announced on Monday (1 January).
The unveiling of Budget 2018 will come after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last November that raising taxes was inevitable as infrastructure and social spending was set to grow.
DBS senior economist Irvin Seah said in a report in late November that the Goods and Services Tax will likely be raised by two percentage points over two years to 9 percent in the upcoming Budget. The GST was last revised upward on 1 July 2007 from 5 per cent to 7 per cent.
The projected rise in the GST would come amid a challenging fiscal position for Singapore, which has registered three consecutive years of deficit in the primary balance, Seah said.
In its statement on Monday, the MOF urged the public to give their views and suggestions on Budget 2018 before the feedback exercise closes on 12 January this year.
