Carbon Pricing Bill

Bill No. 17/2018

Read the first time on 2 March 2018.

An Act to require the reporting of, and the payment of a tax in relation to, greenhouse gas emissions, and to make consequential and related amendments to the Energy Conservation Act (Chapter 92C of the 2014 Revised Edition).

Be it enacted by the President with the advice and consent of the Parliament of Singapore, as follows:

PART 1

PRELIMINARY

Short title and commencement

1. This Act is the Carbon Pricing Act 2018 and comes into operation on a date that the Minister appoints by notification in the Gazette.

General interpretation

2.—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —

“accredited external auditor” means any person accredited by the Agency as an accredited external auditor in accordance with regulations;

“Agency” means the National Environment Agency established by the National Environment Agency Act (Cap. 195);

“Appeal Panel” means an Appeal Panel mentioned in section 38;

“appellant” means any person that makes an appeal under Part 6 against a decision of the Agency;

“authorised officer” means an authorised officer appointed under section 6(2);

“carbon credit” means a carbon credit mentioned in section 26;

“carbon dioxide equivalence”, in relation to any greenhouse gas, means the mass of the greenhouse gas multiplied by its global warming potential set out opposite the greenhouse gas in the third column of the First Schedule;

“carbon price” means the value of a carbon credit;

“electronic record” has the same meaning as in the Electronic Transactions Act (Cap. 88);

“electronic transactions service” means any electronic transactions service provided for in regulations;

“emissions report” means an emissions report mentioned in section 11, and includes a verified emissions report;

“excluded GHG emission” means any GHG emission that is —

(a)	a greenhouse gas specified in the first column of Part 3 of the Second Schedule; and
(b)	emitted in the circumstances described in the second column of Part 3 of that Schedule opposite the greenhouse gas;

“first emissions threshold” means the first emissions threshold specified in Part 1 of the Second Schedule;

“GHG emission”, in relation to any business facility, means any greenhouse gas emitted into the atmosphere directly from the business facility;

“greenhouse gas” means any greenhouse gas specified in the first column of the First Schedule and having the chemical formula specified in the second column of that Schedule opposite the greenhouse gas;

“monitoring plan” includes a monitoring plan that is revised under section 13(4), except in section 12(3)(a);

“non-reckonable GHG emission” means any GHG emission that is —

(a)	a greenhouse gas specified in the first column of Part 2 of the Second Schedule; and
(b)	emitted in the circumstances described in the second column of Part 2 of that Schedule opposite the greenhouse gas;

“public authority” means —

(a)	an Organ of State or a public officer of the Organ of State;
(b)	a ministry or department of the Government or a public officer of the ministry or department; or
(c)	a public authority established under any public Act for a public purpose or an officer or an employee of the public authority;

“reckonable GHG emission” means any GHG emission other than a non-reckonable GHG emission;

“registered person” means a person registered under section 7;

“registry account” means a registry account for a taxable facility of a registered person that is opened by the Agency in the Carbon Credits Registry under section 31;

“regulations” means regulations made under section 76;

“reportable facility” means a business facility that is registered as a reportable facility under section 7;

“reporting period” means any period mentioned in section 11 as a reporting period;

“second emissions threshold” means the second emissions threshold specified in Part 1 of the Second Schedule;

“tax” means the carbon tax imposed under this Act;

“taxable facility” means a business facility that is registered as a taxable facility under section 7;

“tCO₂e” means metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalence;

“verified emissions report” means an emissions report verified under section 12.

(2) In this Act —

(a)	a reference to a business facility of a registered person is a reference to a business facility that is registered as a reportable facility or a taxable facility of the registered person, as the case may be;
(b)	a reference to a reportable facility of a registered person is a reference to a business facility that is registered as a reportable facility of the registered person; and
(c)	a reference to a taxable facility of a registered person is a reference to a business facility that is registered as a taxable facility of the registered person.

(3) In this Act —

(a)	a reference to a verified emissions report that is inaccurate includes a reference to a verified emissions report that is based on a monitoring plan that is inaccurate; and
(b)	a reference to a monitoring plan that is inaccurate includes a reference to a monitoring plan that has not been revised under section 13(4) in the prescribed circumstances, as from such date as may be prescribed (not being a date earlier than the date of those prescribed circumstances).

Meaning of “business facility”

3.—(1) A business facility is a single site at which any business activity is carried out.

(2) In this Act, “business activity” means any activity or series of activities (including ancillary activities) —

(a)	that involves the emission of greenhouse gas; and
(b)	that forms a single undertaking or enterprise, having regard to any circumstances prescribed.

(3) For the purpose of subsection (1), where a business activity is a series of activities that is carried out at more than one parcel of land, the business activity is treated for the purposes of this Act as carried out at a single site if the same person has operational control over the business activity, and —

(a)	the parcels of land are contiguous, adjacent or adjoining, or separated only by any road or pathway (whether or not providing access to the business facility), or drain or waterway; or
(b)	where paragraph (a) does not apply, there is a dependency between the activities carried out on the parcels of land, having regard to any circumstances prescribed.

(4) A series of activities may be treated as forming a single undertaking or enterprise for the purpose of subsection (2)(b) even if —

(a)	any one of the activities in the series is, or any 2 or more activities in the series are, capable of being carried out as a separate and distinct business activity; or
(b)	the activities in the series are from more than one industry sector to which this Act applies.

(5) To avoid doubt, there can be more than one business facility at any parcel of land for the purposes of this Act.

Meaning of “operational control”

4.—(1) A person has operational control over a business facility if the person has the authority to introduce and implement, for the business activity carried out at the business facility (including a business activity that is carried out wholly or partly by a related party of the person), one or more of the following:

(a)	operating policies;
(b)	health and safety policies;
(c)	environmental policies.

(2) Only one person can have operational control over a business facility at any one time.

(3) If more than one person satisfies subsection (1) at any one time, then the person that has the greatest authority to introduce and implement the policies mentioned in that subsection is taken for the purposes of this Act, to have operational control over the business facility.

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