Lower stateland price=rading reserves, incr mil$ minister p

[Relacklabrudder]

 

Questions:

 

When PAP increase Ministers and President pay and creating MM,SM position out if thin air each iwth 3-4 mil salary exc bonus and GIC losing billions, are these rading teh reserves too?

 

 

When you keep increasing withdrawal age, is this also akeen to raiding the citizens' cpf reserves for old age initially defined as 55yo???

 

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SINGAPORE: National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan has said that lowering the price of state land is equivalent to taking money from Singapore's reserves.

 

Mr Mah was rebutting comments made by Workers' Party (WP) Secretary-General Low Thia Khiang, who had suggested that if the government was prepared to collect less money from land sales, homes can be cheaper.

 

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a community event on Saturday, Mr Mah stressed that state land is a part of Singapore's reserves which cannot be raided.

 

He said: "That is precisely what the elected presidency was meant to do, to protect our reserves, to prevent political parties during election time from coming up with all sorts of promises to say, 'oh, I'm going to take money from the reserves to do this, that and the other'."

 

Mr Mah also stressed that the number of new HDB flats is not small, and the lowering of prices will inevitably affect the value of resale homes.

 

He said: "Of course, WP says, 'don't worry, it's only going to come later'. As I've said, that's very small comfort. That's like telling people, 'don't worry, the tsunami is coming, it's only going to hit us a few hours later'. But I say 'no, it's going to hit us almost immediately'. Why? because all the markets are inter-linked."

 

Mr Mah also turned down a proposal by the opposition to have a televised debate.

 

National Solidarity Party (NSP) secretary-general Goh Meng Seng has challenged Mr Mah to a debate on housing, which is seen as a hot-button issue in the upcoming General Election.

 

But Minister Mah shot down the suggestion, saying the government's position on housing is clear.

 

"(What's) more important is for the opposition parties including Workers' Party, NSP, who are all intending to say, 'oh, let's reduce house prices by giving more subsidy'.....to really, honestly tell us how much it's going to cost, and where they are going to get the money from," added Mr Mah.

 

The minister was speaking to reporters after breaking ground for a new community plaza at Tampines.

 

Mr Mah also shared with residents the latest upgrading plans for the estate.

 

He announced that 13 blocks have been selected for the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme. They are blocks 201, 201A, 201B, 201C, 201D, 201E, 211, 212, 213, 214, 225, 226 and 227 at Tampines Street 21 and 23.

 

Also at the event were two new PAP candidates - unionist Steve Tan and former Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) managing director Heng Swee Keat.

 

The NSP, which says it will contest Tampines GRC, plans to question Mr Heng on the authority's role in the minibonds saga of 2008.

 

Mr Heng said he welcomed any contest, adding: "We have come up with a very rigorous and fair process to deal with issues of investors' protection. So I think we have gone all out to do our best."

 

Mr Heng also said he has been meeting residents in Tampines for the past two weeks and has received positive feedback.

 

-CNA/ir

 

 

[Wrc]

Questions:

 

When PAP increase Ministers and President pay and creating MM,SM position out if thin air each iwth 3-4 mil salary exc bonus and GIC losing billions, are these rading teh reserves too?

 

 

When you keep increasing withdrawal age, is this also akeen to raiding the citizens' cpf reserves for old age initially defined as 55yo???

 

********************************************************************************

****************************************************************

 

SINGAPORE: National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan has said that lowering the price of state land is equivalent to taking money from Singapore's reserves.

 

Mr Mah was rebutting comments made by Workers' Party (WP) Secretary-General Low Thia Khiang, who had suggested that if the government was prepared to collect less money from land sales, homes can be cheaper.

 

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a community event on Saturday, Mr Mah stressed that state land is a part of Singapore's reserves which cannot be raided.

 

He said: "That is precisely what the elected presidency was meant to do, to protect our reserves, to prevent political parties during election time from coming up with all sorts of promises to say, 'oh, I'm going to take money from the reserves to do this, that and the other'."

 

Mr Mah also stressed that the number of new HDB flats is not small, and the lowering of prices will inevitably affect the value of resale homes.

 

He said: "Of course, WP says, 'don't worry, it's only going to come later'. As I've said, that's very small comfort. That's like telling people, 'don't worry, the tsunami is coming, it's only going to hit us a few hours later'. But I say 'no, it's going to hit us almost immediately'. Why? because all the markets are inter-linked."

 

Mr Mah also turned down a proposal by the opposition to have a televised debate.

 

National Solidarity Party (NSP) secretary-general Goh Meng Seng has challenged Mr Mah to a debate on housing, which is seen as a hot-button issue in the upcoming General Election.

 

But Minister Mah shot down the suggestion, saying the government's position on housing is clear.

 

"(What's) more important is for the opposition parties including Workers' Party, NSP, who are all intending to say, 'oh, let's reduce house prices by giving more subsidy'.....to really, honestly tell us how much it's going to cost, and where they are going to get the money from," added Mr Mah.

 

The minister was speaking to reporters after breaking ground for a new community plaza at Tampines.

 

Mr Mah also shared with residents the latest upgrading plans for the estate.

 

He announced that 13 blocks have been selected for the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme. They are blocks 201, 201A, 201B, 201C, 201D, 201E, 211, 212, 213, 214, 225, 226 and 227 at Tampines Street 21 and 23.

 

Also at the event were two new PAP candidates - unionist Steve Tan and former Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) managing director Heng Swee Keat.

 

The NSP, which says it will contest Tampines GRC, plans to question Mr Heng on the authority's role in the minibonds saga of 2008.

 

Mr Heng said he welcomed any contest, adding: "We have come up with a very rigorous and fair process to deal with issues of investors' protection. So I think we have gone all out to do our best."

 

Mr Heng also said he has been meeting residents in Tampines for the past two weeks and has received positive feedback.

 

-CNA/ir

 

"(What's) more important is for the opposition parties including Workers' Party, NSP, who are all intending to say, 'oh, let's reduce house prices by giving more subsidy'.....to really, honestly tell us how much it's going to cost, and where they are going to get the money from," added Mr Mah."

 

KNN, why do YOU tell us, whom we have paid such a high price for our flat, how much is the actual cost of the flats are in the first place? And how much differences it is when tied to market price?

Edited April 21, 2011 by Wrc

[Silver_blade]

It does not make sense to lower the land price to below market price. I feel the problem of the rising public housing prices lies with market subsidy instead of a subsidy to the cos of the flat. I agree with MBT that making flats a lot cheaper will not works cos will make many flat owners very poor overnight. But a solution have to be found. We cannot afford to allow the prices to sky rocket. Perhaps we should re look at the Market subsidy approach and find another mechanism to determine new flat price. One that will slow down the increase in prices or find ways to increase everyone's salary.

[Darryn]

A thorough and accurate breakdown in the costs of building flats, as well as the infrastructure to support HDB would be a good place to start.

 

And this should NOT include estate facilities - in other countries "estate facilities" are funded by "property taxes" (which go by many different names and fomats), not the out of the purchase price of the house.

 

For our foreign property we pay "rates" to a town council who then handles "estate facilities" - stuff like playgrounds, local roads, services and other stuff

[Darryn]

A thorough and accurate breakdown in the costs of building flats, as well as the infrastructure to support HDB would be a good place to start.

 

And this should NOT include estate facilities - in other countries "estate facilities" are funded by "property taxes" (which go by many different names and fomats), not the out of the purchase price of the house.

 

For our foreign property we pay "rates" to a town council who then handles "estate facilities" - stuff like playgrounds, local roads, services and other stuff

 

This is actually my hope for Singapore.

 

"National" level things are managed by parliament (eg: taxation, defence, foreign policy, public housing)

 

"Local" level things are managed by a separate and independent (elected) town council. This would be stuff like car parking, playgrounds, estate facilities etc.

 

The "govt" could remit to the "town council" national funding for upgrading, but it is the town council that plans the spending of this funding (for example in the case of MUP)

[Gendut]

Raiding the reserves correctly means getting money from temasek and invest in assets that are worthless next week

 

FYI raiding the reserves happened long ago