FINANCE Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam addressed a number of topics raised by Members of Parliament during the Budget debate.

'GREEN' INITIATIVES

MPs Lam Pin Min (Ang Mo Kio GRC) and Lim Wee Kiak (Sembawang GRC), and Nominated MP Mildred Tan called for more initiatives to encourage companies and workers to be more environmentally conscious.

The Budget did not feature such "green" initiatives, save for enhancements to a scheme for the test-bedding of green transport technologies.

This was because the Government had "already committed last year to a significant $1 billion of funding for sustainable- development initiatives over the next five years", Mr Tharman said.

He explained: "Since then, $400 million has already been earmarked for a variety of projects, such as incentives for green buildings and the test-bedding of solar panels in public housing. In addition, the Government will be spending about $500 million over the next 10 years to retrofit large public-sector buildings to Green Mark GoldPlus standards."

The Building and Construction Authority's Green Mark scheme, launched in 2005, is used to rate a building's environmental performance.

The Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources will provide more details on Singapore's sustainable-development initiatives when the Committee of Supply discusses its estimates next week.

INCOME INEQUALITY

Non-constituency MP Sylvia Lim raised concerns over inequality between those who earn higher salaries and the lower- income group.

Acknowledging this as a valid concern, Mr Tharman said: "If we are able to choose, we would want the growth of incomes to take place without, at the same time, letting incomes become more unequal.

"However, the reality we face is that to create jobs and income growth for lower-skilled workers, we have to first grow our economy. And we can do so only by enabling those with higher skills and entrepreneurial abilities to do well."

He added that slow growth will make everybody worse off, but it will have the harshest impact on those at the bottom.

Thus, the basic approach "must be to maximise opportunities for all Singaporeans - the opportunities to get a good education, to work or to start a business, to retrain and upgrade, and the opportunity to own a home and raise a family in a community they feel they belong in", he said.

INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY

Several MPs were concerned over whether all firms, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), would be able to benefit from the Government's schemes to grow productivity.

Pointing out that the Budget is fundamentally different from last year's Resilience Package,

Mr Tharman said: "While we are making a major commitment to helping our businesses, the benefits will not be spread out equally. Dynamic companies - those which are investing in innovation and upgrading, including small enterprises - will benefit more than others."

Thus, benefits will be targeted at growth-seeking businesses and SMEs. The benefits include the productivity and innovation credit, and industry and sectoral grants.

HELP FOR THE MIDDLE INCOME

Mr Tharman said that squeezed middle-income earners have not been forgotten in this year's Budget.

He said that those in this group will "benefit significantly" - from a shift to a more progressive property-tax system, enhanced income-tax reliefs for families and top-ups to Central Provident Fund Medisave accounts and Post-Secondary Education Accounts.

For example, a middle-income household, which earns an income between the 60th and 70th percentile of household incomes here, and lives in a five-room Housing Board flat, will enjoy $1,700 in benefits this year, he said.

estheray@sph.com.sg

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