Goods and Services Tax Act - Singapore Statutes Online

Power of Comptroller to obtain information and furnishing of information

84.—(1) The Comptroller or any officer authorised by him shall at all times have full and free access to all buildings, places, books, data, documents and other records (including records and documents kept in electronic form on any magnetic, optical or other medium) for any of the purposes of this Act, and may inspect, copy or make extracts from any such books, data, documents or records.

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(2) The Comptroller or any officer authorised by him may take possession of any such books, data, documents or records where in his opinion —

(a)	the inspection, copying or extraction therefrom cannot reasonably be performed without taking possession;
(b)	the books, data, documents or records may be interfered with or destroyed unless possession is taken; or
(c)	the books, data, documents or records may be required as evidence in proceedings for an offence under this Act or in proceedings for the recovery of tax or penalty, or in proceedings by way of an appeal against an assessment.

(3) The Comptroller may require any person to give orally or in writing, as may be required, all such information concerning his or any other person’s transactions made in the course of a business as may be demanded of him by the Comptroller for the purposes of this Act.

(4) No person shall, by virtue of this section, be obliged to disclose any particulars as to which he is under any statutory obligation to observe secrecy.

(5) In connection with the exercise of the powers in subsections (1) and (2), the Comptroller or any officer authorised by him —

(a)

shall be entitled at any reasonable time to have access to, and inspect and check the operation of, any computer and any associated device, apparatus or material which is or has been in use in connection with any data or document to which this section applies; and

(b)

may require —

(i)	the person by whom or on whose behalf the computer is or has been so used; or
(ii)	any person having charge of, or otherwise concerned with the operation of, the computer, device, apparatus or material,

to provide the Comptroller or officer with such reasonable assistance as he may require for the purposes of paragraph (a).

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(6) The Minister may by regulations make provision for requiring taxable persons to notify the Comptroller of such particulars of changes in circumstances relating to those persons or any business carried on by them as appear to the Comptroller to be required for the purpose of keeping the register kept under this Act up to date.

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