2.2  Draft Budget: projected revenue  On the revenue side, the Draft Budget proposes a broad raft of legislative changes to existing taxes, including in particular a higher rate of personal income tax and wealth tax for higher income earners, a limit on double taxation exemptions for large corporations, a minimum tax rate of 15% on the tax base of SOCIMIs (Spain’s real estate investment trusts), and higher taxation of hydrocarbons (focused on diesel oil for non-professional use) and other environmental taxes. On official estimates, these measures combined will raise public revenue by some € billion in 2021. 21  The Draft Budget also reflects the impact on revenue of the financial transaction tax and the tax on certain digital services, both approved recently, and of other new taxes, such as, for example, the tax on non-reusable plastic containers and on landfill waste. On official estimates, the impact on revenue of this set of instruments would amount to some € billion in 2021. As in the case of the expenditure items, I will not examine in detail the different revenue heading measures individually, but will confine my analysis to three questions that I believe to be very important, namely the overall direction of the tax changes introduced, their appropriateness, and the risks surrounding their revenue-raising capacity. First, regarding the nature of the tax changes introduced in this Draft Budget, I wish to reflect on the appropriateness of the timing of the changes proposed and on the specific instruments used.
Economic distress may give way to political and social turmoil in Greece, with an unpredictable interplay with the broader dynamic of geopolitical tensions. Any setback in confidence could hurt a still tentative economic recovery in Europe, which will have spill-over effects on the rest of the world economy. 6. We should therefore not be alarmed, notwithstanding the drama of recent days, but we should stay alert and vigilant. Although the risk of a sudden brake in global growth remains low, we are closely monitoring developments and their potential impact on Singapore. 50 Years of Singapore’s Financial Centre 7. This year’s ABS annual dinner also comes as we mark our 50th year of nationhood in Singapore. Our financial centre has been both beneficiary and driver of the nation’s progress over the five decades. 8. We can take quiet pride in how it has evolved, from its beginnings in the financing of merchant trade with our neighbours, into a well-diversified, vibrant and widely respected centre of Asian and global finance. 9. It was never a given that Singapore would be a major financial centre. We started at a time when Hong Kong had a major head start, as the Asian outpost of the City of London. There was no natural reason why a broad range of global financial institutions and services had to be located in Singapore, a small island state separated from its Malayan hinterland. 10.