Friday, February 16, 2007

Budget 2007

The BIG day is over! I am so relieved. The day started with the usual stuff. Then the budget announcement from Tharman, our second finance minister. I wonder if he would take over PM Lee to be the next finance minister. After all, he came from MAS previously. I think he has strong financial background.

I cracked my brain while he made the various policies announcement on parliament. The budget this year is to help singaporeans tie over the increase in GST. We were right, GST will go up in July. However, the increase in CPF contribution is only 1.5%, which is 0.5% lower than i expected. Business cost will go up but there are lots of measures to help various companies esp SMEs. One is the reduction of corporate tax. I remembered when i studied taxation in SP, the corporate tax was 26%. Over a period of 10 years, it fell to 18%! That is impressive! hahahah...

I was rushing like mad to digest all the information abt various taxes ie Direct and Indirect tax. Whoo... I guess my accountancy background does really help. If not, there will be lots of terms that i guess i wont be able to comprehend. Thankfully some colleagues also chip in for help. To complete the assignment in less than 3 hours is easy. Too much work involved.

At night, i was to stimulate a scenario on how the budget can benefit Singaporeans at large. wah.. I worked with an economist, did some computation with the help of MOF to derive the amount. Ha... Again, it cracked my brain initially. Fortunately i managed to work it out. Boss felt the analysis was good and interesting. Phew... not too bad eh....

Its Friday and off day. Lots of activities coming up.

*Visit Godma in the morning
*Lunch with Kenny
*Visit Si Ma Lu/Gym
*Buy clothes
*Farewell Party

All rite. It is going to be a long day. But it is more of relaxation. So i am ok! Whoo... Saturday and New Year Eve is finally here. Although its a working day for me, i am still looking fwd to it. It will be the usual session at Dbl O, a continuation from last yr tradition, then good food coming up! I am so happy!

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