MPs unanimously support $131b Budget to build shared future

The post-pandemic world is more dangerous and unpredictable, but Singapore will move forward with optimism and hope as the House unanimously voted on March 7 to support the Government's $131.4 billion spending plan for the financial year ahead.

- Goh Yan Han

Pointing to extensive plans to keep the economy vibrant, while helping Singaporeans deal with immediate cost pressures, Leader of the House Indranee Rajah said Budget 2024 "gives life and breath to the plans in Forward Singapore report that we, as Singaporeans, collectively developed to build our shared future together".

This was the first time in three years that MPs on both sides of the aisle voted in support of the Budget a point made by Speaker of Parliament Seah Kian Peng in his speech to cap off nine days of parliamentary debate on the Government and ministries' budgets.

Opposition MPs had objected to the last two Budgets due to disagreement with the goods and services tax hike.

Ms Indranee noted in her closing remarks that preceding Budgets from 2020 to 2023 - including five in 2020 alone - were aimed at helping Singapore get through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Singapore emerged from the pandemic, but into a very different world from which it had entered, she noted, one with conflicts raging in Gaza and Ukraine, fraught with geopolitical contestation.

At the individual level, Singaporeans remain concerned about cost of living and inflationary pressures.

"Against this backdrop, Budget 2024 provides a clear action plan to take Singapore forward into the future with optimism and hope," said Ms Indranee, who is also Second Minister for Finance.