Paying GST for overseas purchases when coming back to Singapore

Reference: Travellers returning to Singapore to pay GST for purchases

The sad state of situation nowadays is that even after paying GST, overseas purchases can still be cheaper, whether hand-carry or shipped back.

E-commerce is only going to grow. More people are going to buy their stuff from overseas.

Should you support local sellers? If you don't support them, they will be gone. But if you support them, you're either getting ripped off or not getting a good deal

And also expect SingPost to deliver your items less quickly than before. I wonder how SingPost is going to provide the manpower for the expected increase in number of deliveries to make. Where and what services are they going to increase prices for?

Remember to pay GST for overseas holiday shopping (customs.gov.sg)

However, you may wish to know that all goods brought into Singapore – including new
items, souvenirs, gifts or food products – are subject to 7 per cent Goods and Services
Tax (GST).

I'm not sure if the above quote is actionable, or is it actually a statute of law. Keywords being "all goods brought into Singapore". All goods? Including the suitcase, iPad, chargers, underwear that I brought overseas and have to bring back?

Roy Ngerng vs Lee Hsien Long: Defamation or David vs Goliath

Reference: LOCAL ARTIST: I FEEL SORRY FOR YOU, LEE HSIEN LOONG

It's another article about Roy Ngerng vs Lee Hsien Long.

If you've followed the saga through comments on blogs and forums, you might have already noticed that a lot of people have no concept of the law. Many seem to see that this is a case of David and Goliath.

One thing I've noticed about the government from their dealings with online squabbles is, they don't want to sue you. They usually just issue a takedown notice, just like in the case of Alex Au from Yawning Bread, same for Leslie Chew for his Demon-cratic Singapore cartoons.

The government get nothing out of it from suing you. And they certainly don't need the extra money.

So how things turn out is usually quite simple. If a takedown notice is issued, you take down the post unless you feel that what you've written is justifiable.

Personally, I feel Lee Hsien Long is giving Roy Ngerng a chance by issuing the takedown notice.

What did Roy Ngerng do?

He took down the posts and emailed people telling them where they can still read the posts. How is that different from not taking down the post?

Oh, and then there's another Youtube video that he set to private instead of taking down, and only after being found out it had to be taken down.

PM Lee demanded an apology and an offer of damages. Roy Ngerng offered $5,000. Did his lawyer M Ravi advise him on that? Did they look at past cases to come up with that amount? If I have no idea how much to offer, I would look at past cases as a guide.

To cut the long story short, Roy Ngerng still thinks he's right, which is why I suppose he's going to court.

I'm also quite impressed that he managed to raise $70,000 from the public for his court case. I wonder if the public is donating for support, or just buying tickets to a David vs Goliath match.

When you're in court, the judge is just going to see this as a simple defamation case. If Roy Ngerng could not substantiate what he claimed on his blog, I doubt he will be able to do that in court, because he would have already done so on his blog if he could.

I've a feeling that the damages that's going to be paid will be quite huge. This is quite a big news and the more people know about it, more distress is created, and possibility of more damages. Those people supporting Roy Ngerng aren't helping at all, I'm not helping at all too by writing this, as are many of the print and online media writing about it.

Singapore average monthly wage was $4,998 in Q4 of 2013

Reference: Most Singaporeans not satisfied with salary: Survey

$4,998 is the average monthly salary in Singapore? Seriously?

Either Singaporeans are really rich, relatively speaking, or there are some really rich people in Singapore pulling up the average.

What's the 50th percentile, the mean?

Can you invest better than CPF?

You can get the answer very easily.

Personally, you contribute 20%. Employer contributes 16%. By right, you should be left with 80% as take-home pay.

Alright, so it's 80% in your bank vs 36% in the CPF account.

Do you twice the amount in cash as compared to CPF?

Alright, I forgot to deduct your monthly expenditure, let's say you spend 50%, so you're left with 40% of the salary that you actually save.

Now, does your bank savings match your CPF? Are you investing better than CPF?

MDA wasting time with the new Arts Term Licensing Scheme

Interesting story of local artists talking about boycotting MDA's new Arts Term Licensing Scheme.

From the story, it says that there would be "penalties they would incur for misclassifying a performance." If that's so, it seem to suggest that MDA will still have to look through the performances. If that's so, they are just wasting the time of creative individuals and companies involved.

Reference:

Artists call for boycott of MDA's Arts Term Licensing Scheme

Roy Ngerng vs PM Lee

Reference:
1. Blogger agrees to remove blog posts and video

2. Allegations against govt must be backed up with facts: Shanmugam

It's just another case of a blogger writing without being able to substantiate what he claims.

I wonder if Roy Ngerng would learn anything from this incident judging by the apology that's "was not and never meant to be genuine" as quoted by Senior Counsel Davinder Singh of Drew & Napier representing PM Lee.

Legal threat is basically the polite way of giving the blogger a chance. Otherwise, there would be a legal proceeding already.

Why CPF system is better than other systems: Tan Chuan-Jin

Reference: Why CPF system is better than other systems: Tan Chuan-Jin

The government is too kind putting out all those arguments.

It should just say that Singapore citizens are too short sighted, irresponsible and not smart enough to manage their own money.

I just read this story from TRS: MY CPF – WHO DECIDE? YOU OR ME?.

This guy Dr DOS earns $2000 monthly, belongs to a family of 5. His total CPF contributions has dropped from 32.5% to 23.5%. That drop has resulted in him not having enough money to pay for his mortgage. So he wants to use the remaining CPF savings make up the difference and pay. CPF says no.

Let's be clear about one point first. Dr DOS has no savings besides his CPF savings. What's going on?

Dr DOS has already shown that he can't save money on his own due to whatever circumstances.

With the CPF system, his savings is locked up so that he can only withdraw at a much later date. Without CPF system, he would have absolutely no savings at all very soon. He's just going to spend more than he saves until he has no more savings - remember he is unable to save.

By allowing money to be withdrawn now to tide over financial difficulties is just a recipe for more trouble in the future.

Little India Riot photos from TNP

The New Paper has some good photos of the riot at Little India.

Breakfast Network closes

One of my favourite websites writing on Singapore news — they mainly write opinions — Breakfast Network has to close because they chose not to license under the Broadcasting (Class Licence) Notification as required by MDA.

The main site has posted the closing notice, but it seems the BN facebook page is still active.
Breakfast Network (BN) was run by Bertha Henson who used to work at The Straits Times. I didn't want to refer to her as an ex-journalist like some websites do because she's still a journalist, except not writing for print.

It's a sad day.

As Mr Brown says, "Gahmen licenses Breakfast Network website to death". That's as close to the truth as it can get.

Here, we have BN who is trying to do things the right way by registering themselves as a business entity. Then MDA asked them to register.

What's the big deal? They could just register but that would mean they have to go through the paperwork, and name every single person who writes under the name of BN, even volunteers. BN explained their rationale.

Meanwhile, websites of poorer quality, bad writing continues to live on, just because they did the right thing by not being legally recognised. It's sad because the public won't care whether they are legal entities. The public will just think those lousy websites are the real deal because there are so many readers. And they will continue to get more readers to the point that they will be a problem to the Government in the future.

There are more reactions below:

• http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=8610
• http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporescene/kitchen-closed-161623269.html 
• http://blogging4myself.blogspot.sg/2013/12/breakfast-network-canary-died-but-only.html 
• http://blog.freedomfromthepress.info/2013/12/10/online-freedom-time-to-revise-the-singapore-report-card/

SMRT bus drivers' strike

It's interesting how the SMRT bus drivers strike has evolved. When I first read ST's headline "SMRT bus drivers protest against pay", I was surprised that they didn't call it a strike. I went online and found out that other papers also didn't mention word of a strike. This puzzled me to the point I had to go to dictionary.com to check if my understanding of the word is still correct.

strike (noun) a concerted stopping of work or withdrawal of workers' services, as to compel an employer to accede to workers' demands or in protest against terms or conditions imposed by an employer.

By refusing to call a strike a strike, one really has to wonder what these newspapers are trying to do. Mr Brown also made fun of the choice of words.