The city-state will not raise government charges on public parking lots, television and radio licenses and other things after the sales tax is increased, Second Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said, according to the Straits Times newspaper.

For businesses, the freeze will apply to fees for such things as a company's registration, or applications for work permits and visas for employees, the report said.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last month that Singapore would raise its goods and services tax by 2 percentage points next year in order to help finance social programs. He simultaneously introduced a package designed to cushion the impact of the tax hike.

Tharman, who was speaking at a televised forum on Thursday, said the sales tax hike, which would yield an additional S$1.5 billion (US$970 million; €733 million) in annual revenue, was part of a larger effort to raise revenue and boost government spending. The Constitution is also to be amended to allow the government to tap capital gains received from investing the national reserves.

Tharman said government spending currently amounted to only 14-15 percent of the country's gross domestic product, but the changes would raise the proportion in five years to 16-17 percent - or between S$2 billion (US$1.2 billion; €970 million) to S$4 billion (US$2.5 billion; €1.9 billion), the paper said.

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