Singapore Budget 2016: A taste of Budget 2016

LUNCH adventure today is back to Beach Road's Golden Mile Food Centre to check out who is still operating there, since the government took back this 40-plus-year-old building in December 2015. There are quite a few empty stalls now given the uncertain future of the building amid the many changes and upgrading projects taking place in the Geylang/Kampong Glam area. Fortunately, a handful of the popular makan joints are still there including this "healthy" 91 Fried Kway Teow & Kheng Fatt Hainanese beef noodles. Still good although I still prefer the sinful version because sweet goreng kway teow is most sedap with sinful pork lard and Chinese sausages. Sinning is always more pleasurable, lah! Muahahaha. But this ah pek is trying to stay healthy since Singapore's Budget Day is only a few days away.

Singapore's new Finance Minister will be presenting the government's FY16 budget proposals next Thursday, ahead of the long Good Friday weekend. What can we expect? Forget about generous rebates and handouts this year. Instead, we can expect a bit more spotlight on the business sector. The past four budgets were more household-centric as the government stepped up spending to win back the hearts & minds of the Rakyat with increased social spending as well as higher allocations for healthcare & transportation sectors (H&T). Allocations for H&T rose from 39 per cent of development spending in FY11, 52 per cent in FY13 to 60 per cent in FY15. In particular, the allocation for transportation sector (road, rail, air, and sea infrastructure) reached S$10.1 billion or 52 per cent of the proposed FY15 development expenditure. With the government committed to spending another S$26 billion on public transport over 2016-2020, the allocation for the transportation sector will stay high, but likely to come down to 40-45 per cent of total development spending after the spike last year (due in part to the setting up of the Changi Airport Development Fund). Similarly, healthcare spending is expected to average S$12 billion annually over the next five years. Together, H&T spending is expected to account for 50-55 per cent of total annual development spending over the 2016-2020 period.