Extension of time to complete construction works
39B.—(1)  Subject to subsection (3), any completion date for any of those construction works provided by the construction contract is extended for those construction works by 122 days from and including the completion date, less the number of days in subsection (2).
(2)  Where the completion date to be extended under subsection (1) was itself the result of an extension granted under the construction contract or otherwise agreed between the parties to the contract, and the latter extension included any number of days in the period between 7 April 2020 and 6 August 2020 (both dates inclusive), then the period in subsection (1) is reduced by the number of those days.
(3)  Subsection (1) does not apply to any completion date for those construction works (whether it is a date before, on or after 7 April 2020) if —
(a)any of those construction works were performed at any time between 20 April 2020 and 30 June 2020 (both dates inclusive);
(b)any of the following, namely:
(i)proceedings before a court;
(ii)arbitral proceedings under the Arbitration Act (Cap. 10);
(iii)such other proceedings as may be prescribed,
have, before 2 November 2020, been commenced in relation to a failure to comply with the completion date (without the extension under subsection (1)), including any such proceedings for the purposes of enforcing any order or judgment obtained in those proceedings; or
(c)any judgment, arbitral award, or compromise or settlement entered into in the course or as a result of any proceedings in paragraph (b), has been given or made before 2 November 2020 in relation to the failure mentioned in that paragraph.
(4)  Where the completion date for any construction works is extended under subsection (1), then, despite any law or anything in the construction contract —
(a)the completion date so extended is treated as the completion date provided by the construction contract for those construction works, for the purposes of the construction contract; and
(b)any liability for a failure to comply with the completion date (without the extension under subsection (1)) is extinguished, except in prescribed circumstances or to the extent prescribed.
(5)  To avoid doubt, nothing in this section prevents any completion date extended under subsection (1) from being further extended in accordance with any provision in the construction contract allowing for an extension of the completion date.
(6)  The Minister may make regulations for the purpose of carrying out or giving effect to this Part, and these regulations may in particular provide for the following:
(a)the recovery by a party to a construction contract of an amount from the other party that was paid before 2 November 2020 for any liability extinguished under subsection (4)(b);
(b)the prescribing of any matter that may be prescribed under this Part.
[Act 37 of 2020 wef 30/11/2020]