Today in tomorrow’s history
Singapore July 3rd, 2007
A few things on 1st July 2007 will go down in history… probably not as something good:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.