According to the latest tax report published by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS), the Lee Hsien Loong administration has overspent by S$25 billion running the country into a tax deficit.
Although IRAS managed to collect S$50.2 billion in taxes for FY2017/18 – which is an increase of 6% compared to a year before, the Singapore government spent S$75.8 billion. The increase in government spending was a 8% jump from a year ago’s S$68.9 billion spending.
Tax collection for the year is only able to fund 66.2% of the government spending, and this has been falling steadily since FY2009/10’s 75.5%.
In recent years, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has been ramping up on billion-dollar projects like Garden By the Bay (a garden sitting on prime land Marina Bay), Bishan River (a man-made river), National Sports Hub stadium and Project Jewel airport. The dictator recently announced that he will be spending an undisclosed amount on Terminal 5, barely revealing that it cost “tens of billions” and require borrowing in the tunes of billions to fund the project. Lee Hsien Loong made no disclosure on his second pet project, Tuas Mega Port, but only said that the project will go through a similar funding structure like Terminal 5.
Apart from overspending in luxurious projects, the PAP administration spend S$53 millions a year in salaries and bonuses for the ministers and president. The Singapore government has the most well-paid political appointments in the world, which the dictatorship defended that low salaries will lead to corruptions.