GST and inefficiency in our economy

Someone argued that as many countries (except Malaysia, Hong Kong and Brunei) have adopted Goods and Services tax, this must be a good tax.

I argue that GST is a bad tax for Singapore for the following reasons:
a) There is no need for GST as the government has sufficient tax revenue from other sources
b) It is more efficient to collect any needed tax revenue from income and corporate tax rather than GST
c) GST requires an additional expensive layer of administration and imposes compliance cost to business
d) Singapore does not provide the costly welfare benefits (e.g. pension, unemployment) that is provided in other high tax countries
e) It is a bad idea to lower income and corporate tax and replace by GST - just to attract some high income foreigners to move their tax base to Singapore.

We should not have followed other countries blindly in adopting GST. We could have stayed with our system of taxation and be a more efficient economy.

Tan Kin Lian