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Central Provident Fund (Amendment) Bill

Bill No. 26/1968

Read the first time on 10th July 1968.

An Act to amend the Central Provident Fund Ordinance (Chapter 150 of the Revised Edition).

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

Short title and commencement

1. This Act may be cited as the Central Provident Fund (Amendment) Act, 1968, and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint.

Amendment of section 2

2. Section 2 of the Central Provident Fund Ordinance (hereinafter in this Act referred to as “the Ordinance”) is hereby amended —

(a)

by deleting the definition of “date of withdrawal” appearing therein;

(b)

by deleting the definition of “employed” appearing therein and substituting therefor the following: —

“ “employed” means engaged under a contract of service or apprenticeship or in an employment in respect of which contributions are payable under regulations made under the provisions of section 25 of this Ordinance;”;

(c)

by inserting immediately after the word “Singapore” appearing in paragraph (a) of the definition of “employee” therein, the words “by an employer”; and

(d)

by deleting the definition of “employer” appearing therein and substituting therefor the following: —

“ “employer” means —

(a)

any person, company, association or body of persons, whether or not incorporated, by whom an employee is employed;

(b)

the owners of any vessel on which an employee is employed;

(c)

any manager, agent or person responsible for the payment of wages to an employee on behalf of an employer; and

(d)

the Government and Her Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom in respect of such categories, classes or descriptions of officers or servants of such Government as may from time to time be declared by the President by notification in the Gazette to be employees for the purposes of this Ordinance:

Provided that no such officer or servant employed by or on behalf of the Government or Her Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom shall be personally liable for anything done or omitted to be done by him as an officer or servant of such Government in good faith;”.

Amendment of section 6

3. Subsection (1) of section 6 of the Ordinance is hereby amended by deleting the words “required to be made” appearing in the third line thereof and the word “required” appearing in the last line thereof and substituting therefor in each case the word “authorised”.

Amendment of section 7

4. Section 7 of the Ordinance is hereby amended —

(a)

by deleting the expression “sections 10, 21 and 23” appearing in the first and second lines of subsection (1) thereof and substituting therefor the expression “section 21 and any regulations made under section 25”;

(b)

by substituting a colon for the full-stop appearing at the end of the proviso to subsection (1) thereof and by adding thereafter the following new proviso: —

“And provided further that the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, amend, add to or vary the Schedule to this Ordinance.”; and

(c)

by deleting the colon appearing at the end of paragraph (b) of subsection (6) thereof and substituting therefor a full-stop and by deleting the proviso thereto.

Amendment of section 8

5. Section 8 of the Ordinance is hereby amended by deleting the words “the Fund” appearing in the second and in the ninth lines thereof and substituting therefor in each case the words “this Ordinance”.

Repeal of section 10

6. Section 10 of the Ordinance is hereby repealed.

Repeal and re-enactment of section 12

7. Section 12 of the Ordinance is hereby repealed and the following substituted therefor: —

“Authorisation and conditions for withdrawal from the Fund

12.—(1) No sum of money standing to the credit of a member of the Fund may be withdrawn from the Fund except with the authority of the Board and, subject to the provisions of subsection (6) of section 14 of this Ordinance and of any regulations and rules made under section 25 of this Ordinance, such authority shall not be given except on the application of a person entitled to withdraw such money from the Fund under the provisions of subsections (2) and (3) of this section.

(2) A member of the Fund, or a committee of his person or of his estate appointed under the provisions of the Mental Disorders and Treatment Ordinance (Cap. 145), shall be entitled to withdraw the sum standing to the credit of such member in the Fund at any time after the Board is satisfied that such member —

(a)	has attained the age of fifty-five years; or
(b)	not being a citizen of Singapore, has left or is about to leave Malaya permanently with no intention to return thereto; or
(c)	is physically or mentally incapacitated from ever continuing in any employment; or
(d)	is found to be of unsound mind:

Provided that a member of the Fund shall not be entitled to withdraw from the Fund more than once in any period of five years.

(3) After the death of a member of the Fund a person nominated by such member in accordance with the provisions of subsection (5) of section 14 of this Ordinance shall be entitled to withdraw such portion of the sum standing to the credit of such member in the Fund as is set out in the memorandum executed in accordance with that subsection.”.

Amendment of section 13

8. Subsection (1) of section 13 of the Ordinance is hereby deleted and the following substituted therefor: —

“(1) Upon an application for the withdrawal of the sum of money standing to the credit of a member of the Fund by a person entitled thereto under the provisions of section 12 of this Ordinance, the Board may authorise the payment to the applicant of a sum equal to the aggregate of the amount standing to the credit of such member in the Fund and any interest calculated in accordance with the proviso to subsection (2) of section 11 of this Ordinance up to the date of such authorisation or, if the applicant is a nominee appointed in accordance with the provisions of subsection (5) of section 14 of this Ordinance, such portion of such sum as he is nominated to receive:

Provided that when any contributions are due to be paid for a member of the Fund in respect of any period ending not later than the last day of the month next following the date on which the withdrawal of the sum of money standing to his credit in the Fund is authorised and such contributions are not paid to the Fund until after such date of authorisation, such contributions shall be treated as if they had been included in the amount standing to the credit of the member at the date of authorisation of withdrawal and paid to the applicant accordingly.”.

Amendment of section 14

9. Section 14 of the Ordinance is hereby amended —

(a)	by deleting the word “No” appearing at the beginning of subsection (1) thereof and substituting therefor the expression “Except as may be provided for in regulations made under the provisions of section 25 of this Ordinance, no”; and
(b)	by deleting the colon appearing in the thirteenth line of subsection (6) thereof and substituting therefor a full-stop, and by deleting the proviso thereto.

New section 15A

10. The Ordinance is hereby amended by inserting immediately after section 15 thereof the following new section: —

“Publication of information to unauthorised person

15A. Any person employed by the Board who without lawful authority publishes or communicates to any person, otherwise than in the ordinary course of his duty or employment, any information acquired by him in the course of his duty or employment shall be guilty of an offence under this Ordinance and shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or to a fine not exceeding four thousand dollars, or to both such imprisonment and fine.”.

Amendment of section 21

11. Section 21 of the Ordinance is hereby amended —

(a)	by deleting the words “so long as that employer shall contribute to that approved fund in respect of the employment of that employee” appearing at the end of subsection (2) thereof and substituting therefor the expression “until such date as the Minister may, in any particular case, by notification in the Gazette, appoint”;
(b)	by deleting subsection (8) thereof; and
(c)	by renumbering the existing subsections (9) and (10) thereof as subsections (8) and (9), respectively.

Repeal and re-enactment of section 24

12. Section 24 of the Ordinance is hereby repealed and the following substituted therefor: —

“Refund of contributions paid in error

24.—(1) When the Board is satisfied that any amount has been paid by error to the Fund in respect of any person or as interest under the provisions of section 7A of this Ordinance the Board may, subject to the provisions of subsection (2) of this section, refund the amount so paid in error to the person by whom it was paid:

Provided that if the refund of any amount paid in error is not claimed within one year of the date on which it was paid or if the member in respect of whom it was paid has withdrawn it, the amount paid in error shall not be refunded but shall be deemed to have been properly paid under the provisions of this Ordinance as interest or for the person in respect of whom it was paid:

And provided further that if any amount is due to the Fund from the person to whom refund of the amount paid in error would otherwise be made, the Board may retain the whole or any part of the amount paid in error and set it off against such amount as is due.

(2) No refund shall be made and no amount shall be set off under this section except with the consent of the Board who may require any person who claims to have paid any amount to the Fund by error to make written application for refund and to furnish such information as the Board may require to determine the amount so paid.”.

New section 24A

13. The Ordinance is hereby amended by inserting immediately after section 24 thereof the following new section: —

“Board may engage in activities not directly related to the Fund and may call for information

24A. The Board may, if the Minister is satisfied that it is in the public interest so to do, engage in activities not directly related to the administration of the Fund including in particular the compilation of information of a statistical nature or otherwise relating to employers and employees and for this purpose the Board may require employers and employees to furnish such particulars as may be necessary.”.

Amendment of section 25

14. Section 25 of the Ordinance is hereby amended —

(a)

by deleting paragraph (c) of subsection (1) thereof and substituting therefor the following: —

“(c)	to provide for the classification of any employment, not being employment under a contract of service or apprenticeship, as an employment in respect of which contributions are payable under the provisions of this Ordinance;”;

(b)

by deleting the words “treated as” appearing in the fourth line of paragraph (d) of subsection (1) thereof and substituting therefor the words “deemed to be”;

(c)

by deleting the full-stop appearing at the end of paragraph (d) of subsection (1) thereof and substituting therefor a semi-colon;

(d)

by inserting immediately after paragraph (d) of subsection (1) thereof the following new paragraphs: —

“(e)

to require such persons as the Minister may specify who derive income from any trade, business, profession or vocation, or from any other source or sources as the Minister may prescribe, to contribute to the Fund in respect of such income:

Provided that no such regulations may require any person to contribute to the Fund after he has attained the age of fifty-five years;

(f)

to provide that the Comptroller of Income Tax, appointed under the Income Tax Ordinance (Cap. 166), may transmit to the Board such information, documents or records as may be required to enable the incomes of the persons referred to in paragraph (e) of this subsection to be ascertained and to provide for the Board, its officers and servants, when dealing with such information, documents or records to be bound by the same conditions as to secrecy as are the persons mentioned in section 6 of that Ordinance;

(g)

to provide for members of the Fund to apply, assign or withdraw all or part of the contributions and interest payable to or standing to their credit in the Fund to or for the purpose of purchasing houses or flats for their own occupation in accordance with such schemes as the Minister may approve; and

(h)

to provide for rates of contributions, other than those specified in the Schedule to this Ordinance, in respect of employees declared by the President to be employees for the purposes of this Ordinance by notification in the Gazette under section 2 of this Ordinance.”;

(e)

by deleting all the words following the words “medical boards” appearing in the first line of paragraph (c) of subsection (2) thereof and substituting therefor the words “for the purpose of determining whether a member of the Fund is physically or mentally incapacitated”;

(f)

by deleting the words “by an employer” appearing in the second line of paragraph (f) of subsection (2) thereof; and

(g)

by deleting the expression “by employers,” appearing in the first line of paragraph (j) of subsection (2) thereof.

Repeal and re-enactment of Schedule

15. The Schedule to the Ordinance is hereby repealed and the following substituted therefor: —

“THE SCHEDULE

(Sections 7 and 25).

The contributions payable are as follows: —

Amount of employee’s wages for the calendar month.

Contribution for the calendar month payable by the employer.

Amount recoverable by the employer from the employee’s wages for the calendar month.

(1)

(2)

(3)

Not exceeding $10

Nil

Exceeding $10 but not exceeding $200

an amount equal to 6¹/₂ per centum of the employee’s wages for the month.

Nil

Exceeding $200

an amount equal to 6¹/₂ per centum of the employee’s wages for the month plus the amount recoverable from the employee specified in column (3) of this Schedule except that the aggregate shall not exceed $300 for the month.

an amount equal to 6¹/₂ per centum of the employee’s wages for the month or the difference between the employee’s wages for the month and $200, whichever is the less except that the amount recoverable from an employee shall not exceed $150 for the month.

For the purpose of this Schedule in the calculation of percentages of any sum, fractions of a cent shall be ignored.”.