Reduce operating cost for small business

In his Budget for 2012, the Minister for Finance has recognized the need to help small companies offset  their operating cost. He is offering a cash grant of $5,000, which is helpful in the short term.

Over the longer term, it is important to bring down the cost of doing business, to help our companies, big and small, to remain competitive.

There are a number of inefficiencies that need to be addressed urgently:

• Heavy compliance cost of GST, especially to small businesses
• Online processes of government agencies, which saves a few minutes for the agemcy but adds hours to the time taken by the public
• Inadequacy in the payment infrastructure, which result in most businesses still using checks to make payments
• Heavy reliance of communicate by physical mail instead of electronic mail

We have to move more quickly to update our laws and practices to facilitate the use of electronic payment and communication, e.g. recognize electronic ways to replace signatures and make payments. The government agencies should take the lead in making these changes - as they would provide legitimacy to address the uncertainties of change.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore should be complimented for taking the lead to implement GIRO payments some 25 years ago. It is time for them to make another breakthrough in making pervasive use of  electronic payments.

Make it easy for customers to use internet banking

I hope that our banks make it easier for their customers

to make payments using internet banking.

DBS Bank requires me, as a customer, to register a payee and to 

authenticate the payee with my mobile phone. This is on

top of logging in to the account with my login name, PIN and

the token (2FA authentication).

As I have reached the limit of the number of my registered payees

I have to find one payee to delete, so that the new payee can be

added. 

When creating the payee, I must make sure that I have entered the 

bank account correctly, as the system does not show me the name 

of the payee. After going through so much hassle, it is easy to make 

a mistake at this juncture.

Previously, I have asked DBS Bank to provide an option for the customer 

to make small payments, say less than $500, without the need to go 

through the complicated process of registering, authenticating and 

deleting a payee. The customer will probably choose this option for a 

once-off payment. 

It would also be useful for the name of the payee to be displayed (after 

the bank account has been entered). This is more important than the

requirement to create a payee record.

DBS Bank was not able to accede to my request. I suspect that the 

current practice must be mandated by the regulator, i.e. Monetary Authority of Singapore. I hope that the regulator can give their comment on this issue.

Tan Kin Lian

A sensible approach towards teacher misconduct

Recently, there were a few news reports about misconduct by

teachers. Some people asked if this could be prevented by 

careful selection of teachers. 

We should not expect ready made solutions to 

all of our problems. Those who have been involved in selecting people

for jobs will know the limitations of any selection process.

The Minister for Education Heng Swee Kiat has promised to deal 

with complaints seriously and to investigate every case of alleged
misconduct.

I wish to point out some potential risks of this approach:

a) Some teachers could be the target of unjustified allegations, 

especially if they are made anonymously. 

b) There are situations where the parent or student may wish 

to remain anonymous to the target of the complaint

c)  A person may be sincere in a behavior which another

party may consider to be offensive.

In the old days, a person in higher authority, for example a 

principal, may be willing to make the judgment and handle

the complaint in a sensible manner. In many cases, an advisory or

warning may be appropriate for first time infringements. 

I am not sure if most people in authority are willing or competent

to take this responsibility today.

An investigation, especially if made known to the public, should only be 

reserved for repeated or more serious cases. 

We must be aware of a tendency for the public to judge a person 

as being guilty just because a complaint had been lodged or an 

investigation conducted.. 

I hope that, in our drive for perfection, we should not forget

the common sense approach towards solving our 

daily problems.

Vitamin Account - poor expected yield

This analysis is done by a qualified actuary - a person who is strong in financial analysis. He calculated the expected return on the Vitamin Account who is sold by a local bank to its customers. The conclusion is that the expected yield is poor.

See www.fisca.sg

Twinkle - what if the situation is reversed?

$1.1 billion transport subsidy

There is considerable debate in Parliament on this issue:
http://singaporedesk.blogspot.com/2012/03/attack-dog-mode.html

Dogs and humans - a matter of logic and reason

A scholar from China, Sun Xu, posted a remark "there are more dogs than humans in Singapore". Many Singaporeans were outraged and condemned him vociferously and relentlessly in the social media. The anger was amplified by the fact that he is studying in Singapore on funding provided by the Government, and is seen to be quite ungrateful. There were calls for the scholarship to be rescinded.

Sun Xu regretted his careless statement and made an apology in a microblog. He also sought the assistance of the Chinese embassy to be given a chance to "repay the kindness"  that he has received from Singapore. I hope that the condemnation and the call for vengeance should now subside and that this matter can be laid to rest.

Let us look at this statement from the perspective of logic and reason. When Sun Xu said that there are "more dogs", he must be imputing that many Singaporeans behave like dogs, He did not say that "all" Singaporeans  behave in that way but he did imply that "most" Singaporeans fit into that mold. In that respect, many people (including me) would disagree with him. But, we would probably agree that "some" Singaporeans do behave badly.

In the heat of anger, we forgot to ask him to explain his remark. What exactly is the negative behavior that he was alluding to?

I have a dog, a Schnauzer, called Twinkle. She must have felt very offended to be associated with bad behavior, especially of the kind that is practiced by humans rather than her kind. She wanted me to point out that her kind also has positive traits, such as loyalty and friendliness, as described by the phrase " a dog is a man's best friend"

There is, frankly, one part of her trait that can be attributed to some (perhaps many) Singaporeans. She wants to appear brave but deep inside, she is not that brave. When a stranger comes to the house, she would bark most loudly and relentlessly, but would keep a distance from the stranger. If challenged, she would probably run into hiding. I do not blame her, for she is really small compared to the stranger.

Let us take a lesson from this saga. While many of us disagree with the statement made by Sun Xu, he has already apologized. We should display a more tolerant and forgiving attitude.

We should also avoid "jumping to conclusion" and, in a similar situation in the future, ask "can you explain your statement? " That would be the trait of a reasonable person - a positive trait that Singaporeans should cultivate.

Tan Kin Lian