SINGAPORE: Workers’ Party chief Pritam Singh has called for fuller public disclosure of billions of dollars in government spending, pressing for clearer accountability at a time he described as “one of the largest fiscal surpluses in decades”.

Speaking in parliament on Tuesday (Feb 24) at the start of the Budget debate, Mr Singh also took aim at the timing of the last General Election, saying it was called shortly after global trade tensions flared.

“The PAP (People’s Action Party) government dissolved parliament just days after the Trump administration’s announcement,” he said, referring to the so-called Liberation Day tariffs unveiled by the United States last year.

“The political timing of the general elections was calculated to put the PAP in the most advantageous position, with tariff uncertainty serving as a rallying call for voters to back the tried and tested.

“Since then, however, there has been remarkably little information of the sectoral tariffs and their actual impact on Singapore,” he said.

Despite the “doom and gloom” surrounding the tariffs then, Mr Singh noted that the government now begins its new term “with what may be the greatest fiscal surplus any PAP government has seen in decades”.

Singapore recorded a surplus of S$15 billion (US$11.8 billion) for the 2025 financial year and expects an S$8 billion surplus for the 2026 financial year – figures Mr Singh said already far exceed the S$2 billion to S$3 billion in additional annual revenue that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) hikes of 2023 and 2024 were meant to generate.

Corporate tax collections are also expected to rise from the 2027 financial year, potentially widening the surplus further.

CALLS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY

Against this backdrop, Mr Singh said “significant” public interest surrounds how these surpluses get deployed, particularly as Singapore grapples with an ageing population and persistent inequality.

Pointing to the S$40 billion Forward Singapore package announced during Budget 2024, he said: “To my knowledge, there has been no well-publicised tracking of cumulative spending since then.”

On the Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2030 plan – for which funding has increased to S$37 billion – Mr Singh said “no comprehensive report” existed on how previous allocations were used or what outcomes were achieved.  

“There is much work still to be done in demonstrating how efficaciously taxpayer dollars have been spent. Across most Budgets, there is a lack of easy-to-track outcomes on the headlines that have been announced.” 

He said the government should be mindful of the “public cynicism and detachment” that can grow when Singaporeans do not see a clear accounting of how public funds are used.

“That is not good for Singapore, and it sits in contradiction with the participatory spirit that Forward Singapore was meant to embody,” he said.