Amarendu Nandy

Singapore's Policy Responses to Aging, Inequality and Poverty: An Assessment

Singapore represents an instructive case study in responding to rapid aging, growing inequalities, and significant relative poverty. Unlike other high-income Asian countries, it has relied on single-tier mandatory savings to finance retirement, housing, and to a lesser extent, health care. To address the low fertility rates, it has permitted the share of the non-citizen population to triple between 1990 and 2005 to nearly 30 per cent. This is subtly altering Singapores socio-political dynamics, while assisting in sustaining growth and competitiveness. The paper argues that Singapore has the fiscal, institutional, and organizational capacities for a modern multi-tier social security system. Singapore is, however, determined to continue with current inadequate and inequitable arrangements, requiring individuals and their families to bear disproportionate risks in financing retirement, health care, and short-term income support. This reflects conscious policy choices arising from a Darwinist vision of society, and the need for socio-political control.

Health Financing in Singapore: A Case for Systemic Reforms

This paper assesses Singapores healthcare financing arrangements in terms of their efficiency, fairness, and adequacy. Singapore represents an interesting case study because it is perhaps the only high-income, rapidly ageing country to rely on mandatory savings to finance healthcare, thus eschewing extensive risk-pooling arrangements, generally regarded as efficient and equitable. The paper argues that parametric reforms, i.e. relatively minor changes in the parameters of current schemes which preserve the existing philosophy and system design, will not be sufficient to meet healthcare financing objectives. Systemic reforms, which will bring Singapore into the mainstream of health financing arrangements found in the OECD countries, are urgently needed. Their design and timing should be based on good quality, timely and relevant data, and an environment conducive to vigorous debate.

Reforming provident and pension fund regulation in India

Purpose – To examine the case for reforming Indias current provident and pension fund governance and regulatory structures. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews various components of Indias social security system with a view to identifying reform needs in their governance and regulatory structures. It then assesses the new pension system to be supervised and regulated by the proposed Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). Findings – The paper finds that the current arrangements do not provide sufficient incentives for professionalism and system-wide perspective essential to meet Indias social security challenges. Urgently operationalizing the PFRDA, and modernizing the relevant laws and regulations could greatly assist in meeting Indias social security challenges. Modernization of Employees Provident Fund Organization is also essential. Research limitations/implications – The analysis suggests that the need for greater professionalism and system-wide perspective should be accorded high priority by Indias provident and pension fund organizations. The analysis in the paper is quite aggregative and qualitative. This underscores the need for more robust database and greater focus on empirical evidence-based policies in this area. Originality/value – The paper will provide a better appreciation of the governance and regulatory issues involved in reforming Indias provident and pension funds. It will also provide a base for other researchers to identify and undertake more detailed analysis of specific aspects such as ways to internationally benchmark administration and compliance costs of provident and pension fund organizations; achieving coordination among PFRDA, banking, insurance, and capital market regulators.

Governance and Regulation of Provident and Pension Funds in Asia

Deregulation and its Discontents examines the different ways in which the issues related to deregulation and reregulation have been addressed in Asia. The role of government in business has gone through distinct, if overlapping, cycles: regulation, deregulation and reregulation. However, little is known about deregulation and even less about reregulation, particularly in relation to Asia. The contributors to this book examine the links between the cycles through detvailed analyses of the electricity market, pensions and stock markets in the Asia Pacific. They also offer an explanation of regulatory cycles.

Property Tax in a City-State: The Case of Singapore

Abstract This paper examines the nature and structure of property tax in Singapore, an affluent and rapidly ageing city state in Southeast Asia. While the property tax based on annual rental value has a long history and is a well accepted tax in Singapore, it is only about two decades ago that the process of modernizing the tax began. The paper highlights three characteristics of Singapores property tax. The first concerns the activist and aggressive use of the property tax as an industrial policy and macroeconomic stabilization tool. The second is the close relationship between public housing, property tax, and mandatory savings scheme. As a result, this scheme has essentially substituted for the mortgage finance market in Singapore. Third, there exist large disparities in property tax treatment of public housing which is very lightly taxed, and the treatment of non-residential properties, which are relatively more heavily taxed. The paper suggests a need for more transparent assessment procedures, particularly in the current scenario of deflationary pressures in the property sector. The paper also suggests that the future revenue potential of Singapores property tax is limited.