Well yesterday wasn't too bad. Watched the latest episode of Bleach, floated about online. Read my Stephen King novel, listened to music. Quite relaxing. Then, wonder of wonders, someone actually called me. At around 2330, tak gave me a missed call, so I returned it, and we talked till 1am I think, before going to sleep. Overall a pretty decent evening.

I'm in a fairly decent mood today and work appears to be ok. Need to wake up slightly earlier though, I missed the shuttle bus and had to wait 15 mins for another and there was an unusual jam so I ended up at work 30 mins late, 9AM. My usual time. =.=

[UPDATE]
Well work today was ok. Lesser calls. Dumb user hung onto me and refused to finish the convo after I told her to checkwith customs. Tok tok tok tok tok and same the same qns again. By the time I'd finished it was 540 already, and after logging in the case, 545 probably. SO I decided to heck and work till 6pm because I arrived late today.

Then I received a call from an importer enquiring on a circular sent out by Customs. He asked if it was correct. He said it would make Singapore a laughing stock. He said it would scare away the tourists and kill the nightlife. Furthermore, they're building an IR and trying to promote a vibrant city. BUT the odd thing is they've raised the tariffs on liquor amazing HIGH.

Check this out. The tariffs on liquor have all been increased to $70. From prices like $9.50, you see amazing stuff like:

Sparkling Juice tariff $9.50 to $70
Shandy tariff $0.80 to $70

So that bottle of red or white you bring in with 750ml inside is going to have an extra $52 slapped on it. 3 cans of shandy will cost $70 more to bring in. Import 500litres of liquor, and you have to pay $35,000. Wow. BUT...

"Last year, I announced that we would progressively move towards taxing liquors on the basis of alcoholic content, rather than on the basis of volume. We are now already taxing many liquors, including beer and stout, on the basis of their alcoholic strength. However, other liquors like wine, whisky, and brandy are still taxed based on volume. With effect from today, all alcoholic beverages will be taxed on the basis of their alcoholic content. Most liquors will see a slight reduction in duty rates. The rationalisation of the duty rates will be broadly revenue neutral."

-Singapore Budget Speech 2008

So I'm thinking that the $70 may be a maximum value. But from the way it was presented in the circular, the only new value was $70 and I don't recall any price tables. Odd. But this is a personal comment and I may be wrong in my intepretation. But after this came out everyone was talking nonstop. Oh and tomorrow is Daryl's birthday, so we opened a bottle of celebratory red of which I had a cup before leaving. Wine is expensive now.

I took shuttle bus to HBfornt and the journey took 10 mins longer now for osme reason, and perhaps thebus was late. Took mrt to Outram then to Tampines and then 27 to Ikea. SPent like 2 hours on the road. AND I dropped too early on 27 so I had to walk. AND I left my wallet in my office os I had to run back and take it before the bus came. ANd after leaving Ikea I left my wallet at the chir so I had to urn back and take it. I was so frightened. And today was CL's CNy celbration with a lion dance and catered buffet.

[UPDATE]
Well ok I'm wrong about the liquor but the way it was presented in the circular was very misleading. I mean, this importer was complaining to me, and my colleagues were talking about it. =\ But I'm just an uneducted observer so I can't be faulted right? Lol.
[/UPDATE]