A range of tax increases, including a 2 percentage point increase to 9 percent in the goods and services levy, were unveiled by Singapore Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat in his budget speech to Parliament as among measures to financially equip the city state for financial pressures that will come with a rapidly aging population.
The government’s fiscal 2018 budget comes less than a week after data showed the island nation’s economy grew at a slower pace in the fourth quarter than previously estimated and the government forecast expansion will moderate this year as an export boom that began in 2017 eases.