15
37.
So I come to the other easy way out suggested by some honourable Members: the raising of loans. Apart from
my honourable Friend Mr. Wilfred Wong, all who referred to
loan financing agreed with me that we should limit ourselves
to directly self-liquidating projects, that is to say,
projects which generate an identifiable cash flow
I do not believe it will be difficult to find a number of
such projects but, equally, I do not believe that there is an unlimited market to be tapped. For one thing, the Mass
Transit Railway Corporation will have to raise over $2,000
million in the forecast period from the open market and so the Government should limit itself, so far as is possible, to
raising loans from development banks. And development banks
do not have unlimited funds to offer (though I shall press the
point home with the Asian Development Bank that we are an
under-borrowed developing member country).
38.
So there are no easy solutions on the revenue side
and this unpalatable fact must be faced. A package approach
is essential: extra revenue must be squeezed out of fees and
charges of all kinds by updating them regularly and I include
here the fees and charges raised by our public utility type
undertakings and by our licensing system. I have no doubt that every proposed updating exercise be it for water supplies
or railway fares or postal services will involve cantankerous
argument with my colleagues, with public bodies, with trade
associations and, of course, with honourable Unofficial Members,
though I am grateful to my honourable Friend Mr. Q.W. Lee for
volunteering acquiescence in a steep rise in the fee for banking
licences and I am happy to inform him that I propose to recommend
that it be at least doubled. Rate revenue must be maintained
in spite of postponements of revaluations, Our reserve of
indirect tax taxability will have to be progressively tapped. Loans for self-liquidating projects must play their appropriate
role. And, finally, there is our reserve of direct tax
taxability which must be exploited by increased administrative
efficiency, by rectifying the eroding effect of case law and
accounting devices on the width of the tax base and, as a last
resort, by raising the standard rate.
39.
Most honourable Members seem to be opposed to any
increase in the standard rate of earnings and profits tax.
/So.....