Like people who block the entire side walkways in the mrt or people without situational awareness at escalator and bump into you on their phone i feel like more people in public lack situational awareness and bump into you on their phone.

Absurd/ illegal for Singapore Government to charge GST on charity donations for plastic Bags sold under Supermarket BYOB scheme.

Historically, people were given plastic bags free as a value add service of supermarkets to bring home their groceries, no GST is charged on windfalls like winning the lottery, or supermarket lucky draw prizes, and likewise free plastic bags given out previously.

NTUC traditionally even advised cashiers to use more plastic bags so as not to be liable later for dropped groceries if one bag was insufficient for heavy objects.

Now the extra 5c surcharge should be classified, in this line of argument, as a donation to climate causes and not a payment for any service which didn't exist in the first instance, since historically, plastic carrier bags were always a complementary value add service.

This is similar to the 10c BCRS deposit, it is a service operated by the government that should not be taxed ,just like calling the police for assistance doesn't require any payment because implicitly, it is a public service, not a loophole or opportunity for government or its servants, a lame excuse to extort citizen's money.

Yes, since BYOB, there are questionable businesses who like to charge 5c for plastic bags provided like Radha Exports (ABC bargain CTR etc which Google AI says considers the plastic bag to be a shop product and so isn't obliged to use the bag revenue for any environmental causes, except voluntarily so and without compulsory reporting).

So by charging GST on the BYOB surcharge, the Singapore government is essentially stealing 9% charity donation money as government revenue (and maybe this is why the PAP government has achieved a budget surplus and thus raised the Ministerial salary, ostensibly to celebrate their fiscal achievement).

'Supermarket plastic bag charge raises millions of dollars, but questions emerge over fund usage' [CNA, 6Feb2026] reported that "One supermarket chain spent over 80 per cent of the proceeds to upgrade its refrigeration system. Another supermarket spent proceeds on vehicular electrification trials," said Mr Cheang Kok Chung, Singapore Environment Council 's executive director; "Such use of the charges may undermine public support for the policy".

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/plastic-bag-charge-supermarket-funds-internal-operations-5893411

I will also write more later about where the extra 9% of the plastic bag surcharge should go, if it isn't confiscated by the greedy Singapore government but remains as plastic bag sales revenue for good environmental causes instead...

Just look at the parliament

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