Reuters
When Singapore began its coronavirus lockdown last April, little did Prashant Somosundram know that it would be 16 weeks before The Projector, the independent cinema he runs, would be allowed to reopen – and even then only at reduced capacity.
While most workplaces across the city state were forced to shut for the eight-week “circuit-breaker”, cinemas faced even greater restrictions. The Projector’s relatively small size, meanwhile, meant it seemed less well-placed than its larger competitors to weather the storm.
Somosundram, the general manager, estimates that without any income over that period he would have needed to cut up to half of his manpower cost either by reducing hours or cutting pay salaries cuts just to keep the business alive. He already runs a lean team of 14 workers.
So, your Taobao phone cases and shoes from Amazon are going to be slapped with a Goods and Services Tax (GST) from 2023.
This announcement came just after the GST was extended to imported digital services (like Spotify and Netflix s streaming services) in January 2020.
Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said in his 2021 Budget speech that these changes would ensure a level playing field for our local businesses to compete effectively .
All good, but people in Singapore have been shopping online for a while now. So, why did it take so long to levy GST on these low-value imports?
There are certain difficulties that come with taxing suppliers