SINGAPORE — The temperature in Parliament rose on Friday (Feb 24) as the Budget debate ended on a heated note, with two Workers’ Party (WP) Members of Parliament (MP), Mr Pritam Singh and Mr Leon Perera, exchanging sharp words with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.
One of the issues at the heart of their debate was that of Build-to-Order flats and a November 2019 working paper by the WP on Housing and Development Board resale prices.
In his round-up speech, Mr Wong, who was the National Development Minister in 2019, noted that in a letter published in the Straits Times on Friday, the WP said this 9,000 figure was not a proposal. Under the NIRC framework, the Government can spend up to 50 per cent of the net investment returns on net assets achieved by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and state investor Temasek Holdings.
This prompted Mr Singh, who is Leader of the Opposition, to point out that the Government had changed the NIRC framework in 2015 by including Temasek into the mix, a point which Mr Wong then rebutted.: What the Government is not saying is that the context of the WP housing paper was in response to the Voluntary Early Redevelopment Scheme. The housing paper looks at a longer-range forecast of the housing sector. And that was the context, which I have not heard any PAP MP speak about.
So the call to action says BTO should continue. I repeat, BTO projects should continue. It doesn't say the BTO project should continue at reduced rates. It doesn't say BTO projects should stop. It doesn't say BTO — you laugh. You laugh.
You have Temasek being included in the NIRC formula. Why? Because, we were told, there were more needs, healthcare needs, ageing population. I think these are perfectly, eminently reasonable explanations as to why the Temasek tap was led into the NIRC framework. So why is that not irresponsible and not taking money away from future generations, but when the Workers’ Party says it, ah, then it is irresponsible. Is it seeking political mileage, that it is okay when you do it, but it's not okay when we call for it?: I think we have been through this debate in this House and I've explained from the Government's point of view, we put in place a framework and we staged out the implementation over a period of time.
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