Property Tax (Amendment) Bill

Bill No. 31/1981

Read the first time on 22nd December 1981.

An Act to amend the Property Tax Act (Chapter 144 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 Property Tax (Amendment) Act, 1981, and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint.

Amendment of section 7

2. Section 7 of the Property Tax Act (referred to in this Act as the principal Act) is amended by deleting the words “, but no refund shall be made unless the claim therefor is received not later than six months after the expiration of the half year in respect of which such claim is made” at the end of the proviso to subsection (2).

New section 7A

3. The principal Act is amended by inserting, immediately after section 7, the following section: —

“Refund for energy conservation

7A.—(1) Subject to this section where any person, being the owner of any premises in a centrally air-conditioned commercial building, has incurred any approved expenditure in relation to that building when occupying those premises for residential purposes or when those premises are vacant, there shall be allowed a refund of tax paid in respect of those premises for the year in which the claim for refund is made of an amount equal to forty per cent of that expenditure (referred to in this Act as the refundable expenditure).

(2) Where in any year in which the claim for refund is made, full effect cannot be given to any refundable expenditure by reason of insufficiency of tax paid for that year the balance of the refundable expenditure shall be refunded from the tax paid by him in respect of those premises for the next succeeding year and so on for the subsequent years until the refundable expenditure has been refunded in full.

(3) No refund under this section shall be allowed where the person claiming the refund is entitled to claim a deduction under section 14G of the Income Tax Act (Cap. 141) in respect of the same expenditure.

(4) For the purposes of this section —

“approved expenditure”, in relation to a commercial building, means any expenditure approved by the Minister or such person as he may appoint and incurred in effecting, for the purposes of energy conservation, alteration of the building which results in a reduction of the overall thermal transfer value of the building to 45 watts per square metre or less, and in connection therewith, any alteration of the central air-conditioning plant of the building which results in an improvement to the coefficient of performance of the plant.”.

Amendment of section 17

4. Section 17 of the principal Act is amended —

(a)

by inserting, immediately after subsection (4), the following subsection: —

“(4A) When any building is erected, rebuilt, enlarged, altered or improved, the architect in charge or, if there is no architect, the person supervising such building works shall, within fifteen days, give notice thereof in writing to the Chief Assessor.”;

(b)

by deleting the words “said period of fifteen days” in the first line of subsection (5) and substituting the words “period of fifteen days referred to in subsections (4) and (4A)”; and

(c)

by inserting, immediately after subsection (12), the following subsections: —

“(13) An owner who fails to give any notice required by this section and who subsequently becomes liable to pay tax pursuant to section 19 shall pay interest on such tax at the rate of ten per cent per annum.

(14) The interest payable under subsection (13) shall be calculated from the date of expiry of the period during which the notice is to be given and shall be deemed to be tax payable and recoverable under this Act.”.

Amendment of section 18

5. Section 18 of the principal Act is amended by inserting, immediately after subsection (6), the following subsection: —

“(6A) Where notice of proposal to amend has been given by the Chief Assessor pursuant to subsection (2) after the Valuation List for the ensuing year has been closed for public inspection but before it comes into operation and if no notice of objection is lodged against the proposal within the prescribed time, the Chief Assessor may, without notice to the owner, cause the Valuation List for the ensuing year to be amended in accordance with the proposal in the notice.”.

Amendment of section 32

6. Section 32 of the principal Act is amended by deleting the words “subsection (5)” in the third line of subsection (6) and substituting the words “subsection (6)”.

Amendment of section 46

7. Section 46 of the principal Act is amended by deleting subsection (1) and substituting the following subsections: —

“(1) The Comptroller may allot a number to or alter the number of any property and may require the owner of the property to fix the number in a conspicuous place on the outside of such property or at the entrance of the enclosure of the property, or change, replace or refix the number within a prescribed time.

(1A) The Comptroller may, if he thinks fit, undertake the fixing, changing, replacing or refixing of the number of the property and the expense of such fixing, changing, replacing or refixing shall be determined by the Comptroller and paid by the owner of the property.

(1B) The allotment to and fixing of a number on the outside of any house or building which has been erected in contravention of any written law shall not prevent the person who has contravened such law from being prosecuted thereunder and from being liable to the penalty under such law, or the unauthorised house or building from being demolished under such law.”.

Amendment of section 47

8. Section 47 of the principal Act is amended by deleting subsection (3).

Repeal of section 49

9. Section 49 of the principal Act is repealed.

Amendment of section 50

10. Section 50 of the principal Act is amended by deleting the words “subsection (3) of section 47” in subsection (1) and substituting the words “subsection (1A) of section 46”.

Amendment of section 59

11. Section 59 of the principal Act is amended by deleting the words “one thousand dollars” and substituting the words “five thousand dollars”.

Amendment of section 63

12. Subsection (1) of section 63 of the principal Act is amended —

(a)

by deleting the word “and” at the end of paragraph (d), and by inserting immediately thereafter the following paragraph: —

“(e)	prescribing the time and manner in which an owner of a property shall mark or display the number allotted to such property and the penalties for noncompliance; and”; and

(b)

by re-lettering the existing paragraph (e) as paragraph (f).

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