A few things on 1st July 2007 will go down in history… probably not as something good:

1. GST hike from 5% to 7% – woohoo! done in the name of helping the poor, although there has been widespread speculation that it was meant for the minister’s pay hike.
2. NETS hike for merchants from between 0.35 and 0.55 per cent of the purchases to 1.5 to 1.8 per cent – this increase in cost will probably be passed back to the consumers. NETS has advised all merchants not to pass the cost down to the consumers. I think they must be dreaming – the merchants need to eat, drink and sleep too; and they don’t survive on air.
3. No smoking in pubs and beer wells – well, this is a good thing for me cos’ I don’t smoke, and neither do most of my friends. But I am sure a lot of people will be looking for the yellow box soon.
4. Cigarette price hike = apparently, cost of cigarettes went up too, although I am not sure by how much. Sometimes, I wonder why they don’t just ban the whole thing instead of leading smokers to spend more each day.
5. Petrol price hike – the cost of petrol is as volatile as the stock market in Singapore, and this is hidden in a myriad of conditional discounts that get drivers totally confused. This habit of hidding costs in complex Newtonian formulas can also be seen in taxi surcharges.
6. Starhub CableTV fee hike – actually it’s on 11 July 2007, but it’s just to add on to the list – subscribers pay between $4 to $10 more in their fees depending on whether they subscribe to the sports channel – who commanded the $10 increase.

In addition, I heard that the transport fare hike is coming soon – August or October or somewhere around there. I heard that it’s just a mere few cents – won’t hurt you much.