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Singapore Tonight - Fri 15 Aug 2025
From business to politics, health to technology, we bring you up-to-date with the latest news on Singapore and analyze how these events may affect you tomorrow.
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NDR 2025: PM Wong on using CDC vouchers to buy durians
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Straits Times
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Air Canada to resume flights after directive ending strike
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Air Canada's flight attendants are required to return to their duties by 2am Singapore time, a directive said. Air Canada plans to resume flights on Aug 17 after the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) acted on a directive from the country's Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu to end a cabin crew strike that caused the suspension of around 700 daily flights. The CIRB directed Air Canada to resume operations and for all Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flight attendants to return to their duties by 2pm Eastern time (2am Singapore time), the airline said in a statement. The directive came after the government on Aug 16 moved to end the strike and require binding arbitration to break a contract impasse, an action that the country's largest carrier had sought but unionised flight attendants fiercely opposed. Thousands of Air Canada cabin crew walked off the job on Aug 16 for the first time since 1985, after months of negotiations over a new contract. In anticipation of the stoppage, the airline began cancelling flights on Aug 15 , forcing more than 100,000 travelers to scramble for alternatives or stay put. Air Canada said flights would restart on the evening of Aug 17, but some would still be cancelled over the next seven to 10 days as the schedule stabilises and returns to normal. REUTERS
CNA
3 hours ago
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Modi's tax overhaul to strain finances but boost image amid US trade tensions
NEW DELHI :Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's deepest tax cuts in eight years will strain government revenues but are winning praise from businesses and political pundits who say they will bolster his image in an ongoing trade fight with Washington. In the biggest tax overhaul since 2017, Modi's government on Saturday announced sweeping changes to the complex goods and services tax (GST) regime which will make daily essentials and electronics cheaper from October, helping consumers and also companies like Nestle, Samsung and LG Electronics. At the same time, in his Independence Day speech on Friday, Modi urged Indians to use more goods made domestically, echoing calls from many of his supporters to boycott U.S. products after Donald Trump hiked tariffs on imports from India to 50 per cent as of August 27. The tax cut plan comes with costs given GST is a major revenue generator. IDFC First Bank says the cuts will boost India's GDP by 0.6 per centage points over 12 months but will cost the state and federal government $20 billion annually. But it will improve weak stock market sentiment and bring political dividends for Modi ahead of a critical state election in the eastern state of Bihar, said Rasheed Kidwai, a fellow at New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation. "GST reduction will impact everyone, unlike cuts to income tax, which is paid by only 3 per cent-4 per cent of the population. Modi is doing this as he is under a lot of pressure due to U.S. policies," said Kidwai. "The move will also help the stock market, which is now politically important as it has a lot of retail investors." India launched the major tax system in 2017 that subsumed local state taxes into the new, nationwide GST to unify its economy for the first time. But the biggest tax reform since India's independence faced criticism for its complex design that taxes products and services under four slabs - 5 per cent, 12 per cent, 18 per cent and 28 per cent. Last year, India said caramel popcorn would be taxed at 18 per cent but the salted category at 5 per cent, triggering criticism about a glaring example of GST's complexities. Under the new system, India will abolish the 28 per cent slab - which includes cars and electronics - and move nearly all of the items under the 12 per cent category to the lower 5 per cent slab, benefitting many more consumer items and packaged foods. Government data shows the 28 per cent and 12 per cent tax slabs together garner 16 per cent of India's annual GST revenue of roughly $250 billion last fiscal year. 'A BRIGHTER GIFT' AND POLITICS Bihar is a key state politically and goes to the polls by November. A recent survey by the VoteVibe agency showed Modi's opposition has an edge largely because of a lack of jobs. "Any tax cut has wide public appreciation. But of course, the timing is purely determined by political exigencies," said Dilip Cherian, a communications consultant and co-founder of Indian public relations firm Perfect Relations. "It seems to be an indication of some mixture of frustration as well as recognition that there is a broad public pushback against high and crippling rates of taxation." Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has seized on his tax announcement, posting on X that on the Hindu festival of lights, Diwali, "a brighter gift of simpler taxes and more savings is waiting for every Indian." Modi has vowed to protect farmers, fishermen and cattlemen, following Trump's surprise tariff announcement on India, after trade talks between New Delhi and Washington collapsed over disagreement on opening India's vast farm and dairy sectors and stopping Russian oil purchases. The latest round of trade talks between the two nations set for August 25-29 has also been called off.
