addressing social and economic inequality and how it posed a threat to Singapore's solidarity. Lim also questioned if the Government had commissioned independent studies on social mobility using longitudinal data. On 1 March 2018, Lim also pointed out that the Government had earlier floated "test balloons" on a possible GST hike but the public noted a contradiction with Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam's earlier statements that the Government already had enough money for the decade. This was, in Lim's view, a possible factor that led to the tax hike of two percentage points to 9% taking place only sometime between 2021 and 2025 instead of immediately. She said, "I rather suspect myself that the Government is stuck with that announcement otherwise... perhaps we would be debating a GST hike today." Law Minister K Shanmugam and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat rejected Lim's suspicion and demanded that Lim withdraw her statements. In particular, Shanmugam said that Lim had implied that the government was being dishonest by backing down on its plans, which was a "thoroughly hypocritical and dishonest statement typical of the statements she makes in this House". In a fiery exchange which saw Shanmugam and Lim responding and talk over each other, Lim refused to retract her statements and defended her views as her "honest suspicion". Lim fired back, "The Government can rebut our speeches robustly, that's fine, but I don't think I'm disentitled to come to Parliament to advance honestly held beliefs or suspicions". The debate got so heated that Speaker Tan Chuan-Jin had to interject and remind MPs to respond only when their names were called. Many online commentators on Channel NewsAsia's Facebook page, citing the presence of parliamentary privilege and the fact that it was an elected MP's duty to voice out the concerns of the public, were largely unconvinced by Shanmugam's accusations and saw no issue with Lim's statement. They also pointed out that Shanmugam seemed to have a personal discontent with Lim, judging from the numerous occasions in which both had clashed in Parliament. Lim highlighted this in Parliament in a statement during clarification time, “I can understand why he wants to accuse me of various things because he probably was not happy about past debates where I had disagreed with some of his legislative changes and in typical fashion, he always accuses me of dishonesty when as far as I am concerned I’ve acted