A bespoke approach to transformation

IN his maiden Budget that he presented to Parliament on Thursday, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat managed to pull off something of a coup. He increased spending by 7.3 per cent, did not introduce any significant new taxes - neither direct nor indirect - and yet produced a projected budget surplus of 0.8 per cent of GDP - this in what is likely to be another slow-growth year.

This happy outcome owes partly to an element of temporary good fortune: Revenues in FY 2016 were buoyed by vehicle-related tax revenues (which are expected to go down hereafter) and higher contributions from net investment returns (which too, might be temporary).

But the key reason was that whatever incentives and new outlays were provided - and there were plenty of them, both for companies and individuals - were…