Early Release of Draft Budget Statement for Public Consultation

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Finance whether the Ministry will consider releasing a draft Budget Statement for public consultation one month before the delivery of the Budget Statement in Parliament.

Madam, we agree that engaging and consulting the public are valuable to the Budget process. In fact, preparations and consultations for the Budget take place all year round. Throughout the year, the Government gathers feedback and studies data to formulate and implement better plans. This consultation effort goes beyond MOF and includes the outreach and consultations by other Ministries and REACH to Singaporeans, businesses, workers and various sectors.

The feedback gathering is intensified around the end of the year, typically by early December, in a more formal Budget feedback exercise. The process is structured along certain themes and questions, which, in a way, reflects some of the areas being examined for the coming Budget.

For Budget 2017, REACH had Listening Points across Singapore over 10 December 2016 to 8 January 2017 to provide accessible, open booths for Singaporeans to give their views for Budget 2017. REACH also hosted events, such as the Pre-Budget 2017 Conversation and Facebook Q&A Session, for Singaporeans to directly engage with policymakers and Members of Parliament. MOF ran engagement sessions with stakeholders, such as trade associations and grassroots leaders. This past year, through the work of the Committee on the Future Economy, there were additional engagement sessions with students, industry leaders, unionists and academics. Feedback received during these consultations had further contributed to the formulation of the Budget.

On the timing of consultation, we have found from our interactions with companies and stakeholders that many of them would prefer to give their views closer to the Budget as the economic situation for the coming year is clearer and business concerns become clearer.

The current spread of engagement opportunities during the year, growing more intensive nearer Budget Day, achieves the goal of engaging Singaporeans to think about our future, as Mr Louis Ng's suggestion intends.

The Budget is not a destination, but part of a journey of feedback-gathering, analysis, policy review and refinement, in order to improve Singapore and the lives of Singaporeans.

Thank you, Madam, I am aware that we are doing a lot of public consultations, but I think the question is: whether we can do public consultations when the public already knows what the Budget Statement is going to be. So, at least they can give feedback, meaningful ones which we can use to amend or improve the Budget. Because what we are doing now in a lot of our dialogues is explaining the Budget to people and we are not really getting their feedback on how we can improve it further.

Mdm Speaker, I thank Mr Ng for his comments and clarifications. There are really two parts to the consultation. Mr Ng spoke about explaining. The explaining part comes after the Budget has been delivered. Prior to that, there is a great deal of consultations and the consultations take place not just in the month or two before the Budget Statement is delivered, but it sometimes takes a long time.

For example, the Pioneer Generation Package is something which had its genesis in Our Singapore Conversation which started in 2012. It was announced in Budget 2014. It was two years in the making from feedback from people about their concerns and also the feedback that they wanted to honour the elderly. So, it took two years to put together that particular package.

We also have, for example, in this year's Budget, the Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) and SME Go Digital programme. This was something that was borne out of the CFE discussions and recommendations. So, prior to the Budget, there were a lot of consultations, some of which were years in the making, some of which were in that year itself, some of it were in the months prior, or a month or two before. What we do is, rather than releasing a draft Budget in detail, as I mentioned earlier, we talk about themes. For example, on elder care, how we can assist for an ageing population.

These are themes that we float and discuss with people, and then we put them into the Budget. Because whatever it is, in any Budget Statement, there will always be different views. For example, if we were to put up a Budget and say, "We want to raise worker levies", what do you think the response would be? There would be some who may say, "Yes, let us do it straightaway". I suspect there would be a lot more who would say "no". And then, what do you do? The Government has to take a position. The Government must make a policy decision. The Government has to make that call.

So, we draw in ideas from the consultations. We put it together and then it is delivered at the Budget Statement. But the Budget Statement is actually still subject to the approval of Parliament. Parliament comes back and gives its final input and suggestions. That is why the Motion that is moved by the Minister for Finance, when we have the Budget debates, is that "this Parliament approves the fiscal policy of the Government".

So, the process is really designed to be as efficient as possible but, at the same time, taking on broad feedback, and to the extent that it is not possible to incorporate something in a particular financial year but if it is a good idea, we will see if we can incorporate it in the months ahead, or in the following year.