Central Provident Fund Act 1953 - Singapore Statutes Online

Rates of contributions

7.—(1) Subject to section 69 and any regulations made under section 77(1), every employer of an employee must pay to the Fund monthly in respect of each employee contributions at the appropriate rates set out in the First Schedule.

(1A) The Board may, in its discretion and on such terms and conditions as the Board may impose, authorise an employer or a class or classes of employers to pay those contributions at other intervals not exceeding 6 months.

(2) Despite the provisions of any written law or any contract to the contrary, an employer is entitled to recover from the monthly wages of an employee the amount shown in the First Schedule as so recoverable from the employee.

(3) Where any employer who has recovered any amount from the monthly wages of an employee in accordance with subsection (2) fails to pay the contributions to the Fund within such time as may be prescribed, the employer shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years or to both.

(4) Without limiting subsections (1) and (2) and the First Schedule, and subject to section 13B(2) and such terms and conditions as the Board may impose —

(a)	an employee may at any time contribute voluntarily to the Fund a sum additional to that shown in the First Schedule as payable by the employer;
(b)	an employee who desires to have contributions in excess of the appropriate rate deducted from his or her monthly wages by his or her employer may give to his or her employer written notice to that effect, and thereafter, so long as he or she is employed by that employer, the employer must make the deductions from his or her wages for each month until such time, not being less than 6 months from the giving of the previous notice, as the employee gives further written notice to his or her employer of his or her desire to cease to have the excess monthly contributions deducted from his or her wages, and the employer must pay the amount of the excess deductions to the Fund in addition to the appropriate monthly contributions; or
(c)	an employer may at any time pay to the Fund contributions in respect of any of his or her employees at a rate in excess of the appropriate rate set out in the First Schedule. [6/2016] [Act 39 of 2021 wef 01/01/2022]

(4A) [Deleted by Act 39 of 2021 wef 01/01/2022]

(5) Despite any contract to the contrary, an employer is not entitled to recover in any way from an employee in respect of contributions payable under this Act any sum in excess of that permitted to be recovered under subsection (2) together with any sum contributed voluntarily by the employee under subsection (4) and any employer who recovers or attempts to recover any greater sum shall be guilty of an offence.

(6) The portion of any contribution recoverable under the First Schedule from the wages of an employee in accordance with subsections (2) and (4) shall be recovered by the employer from the wages in respect of which the contribution is payable at the time of payment of those wages and not otherwise.

(6A) Subject to such conditions as the Board may prescribe, where an employer has, by error not occasioned by that employer’s negligence, omitted to recover from the wages paid to an employee any amount or part of any amount that the employer would otherwise have been entitled to recover at the time of payment of the wages, the amount or part thereof may be recovered from the wages payable by the employer to the employee not later than 6 months from the date of the payment of the wages in respect of which the amount or part thereof was omitted to be recovered.

(7) Despite subsection (6), where wages are payable at intervals of less than one month, if in any month it appears to the employer that the wages of any employee for that month are likely to exceed $500, the employer —

(a)	may deduct from the employee’s wages at the time of each payment in the month the appropriate proportion of such sum as would be recoverable from the employee in accordance with the First Schedule in respect of the wages if paid at the same rate throughout the month; and
(b)	must make such adjustment as may be necessary on the occasion of the last payment in that month, but if the wages do not actually exceed $500 for that month, the employer must forthwith refund to the employee the amount of the deductions.

(8) The Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, amend the First Schedule and may prescribe in the First Schedule —

(a)

different rates of contributions payable in respect of different types of wages;

(b)

the payment of contributions on such additional wages as may be specified in the First Schedule, and the computation of such contributions which may —

(i)	be based on the wages of an employee for the preceding year or the current year; and
(ii)	be adjusted at the end of the year or in the last month of the employee’s employment with the employer based on the employee’s actual wages for the year; and

(c)

modifications to the contributions payable on an employee’s additional wages for any year by any of the employee’s employers which the Board is satisfied —

(i)	are related in a manner approved by the Board; and
(ii)	meet any requirements specified by the Board. [6/2016]

(9) Despite subsection (6), where an employer is required to pay to the Fund any additional contributions on additional wages and is entitled to recover such contributions from the wages of the employee in accordance with the First Schedule, the employer may recover such contributions from the wages payable by the employer to the employee not later than 6 months from the end of the year in which the additional contributions are payable.

(10) Despite subsection (5), if it appears to the employer at the time when additional wages as specified in the First Schedule are payable to the employee that additional contributions in respect of such additional wages are likely to arise at the end of the year due to the recomputation of additional wages on which contributions are payable in accordance with the First Schedule, the employer may —

(a)	contribute to the Fund a sum additional to that shown in the First Schedule as payable by the employer; and
(b)	despite subsection (6), recover the appropriate proportion of such sum in accordance with the First Schedule from the additional wages of the employee.

(11) Where an employer is required to pay to the Fund any additional contributions and is entitled to recover such contributions from the wages of the employee in accordance with the First Schedule, the Board may, despite subsection (1), if it is satisfied that the employer is unable to recover in full or in part from the wages of the employee and that the employee is no longer in the employment of the employer, waive the payment of that portion of the additional contributions that the employer is unable to so recover.

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