Economic Expansion Incentives (Relief from Income Tax) Regulations

Economic Expansion Incentives (Relief from Income Tax) Act

(Chapter 86, Section 108)

Rg 1

REVISED EDITION 1990

(25th March 1992)

[15th December 1968]

Citation

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Economic Expansion Incentives (Relief from Income Tax) Regulations.

Definitions

2.—(1) In these Regulations —

“Comptroller” means the Comptroller of Income Tax appointed under the Income Tax Act [Cap. 134];

“Director-General of Customs and Excise” means the Director-General of Customs and Excise appointed under the Customs Act [Cap. 70];

“export enterprise certificate” means a certificate issued by the Minister under section 30 of the Act;

“export warehouse” means any premises where an export product or export produce is manufactured or stored.

(2) The Deputy Director-General of Customs and Excise and all Directors of Customs and Excise shall, subject to the general direction and supervision of the Director-General of Customs and Excise, have and exercise all the powers conferred on the Director-General of Customs and Excise by these Regulations or delegated to the Director-General of Customs and Excise under the Act.

Application for export enterprise certificate

3. Every application for the issue of an export enterprise certificate shall be made in writing in the prescribed form to the Economic Development Board, 250 North Bridge Road, #24-00 Raffles City Tower, Singapore 0617.

Physical requirements in export warehouse

4. As and when required by the Director-General of Customs and Excise provision shall be made at an export warehouse for —

(a)	separate storage space for finished export product or export produce ready for export;
(b)	a separate office for the officers of customs; and
(c)	such other requirements as are considered necessary by a senior officer of customs.

Customs control

5. If the Director-General of Customs and Excise thinks it necessary, an export enterprise, desirous of packing export product or export produce at its export warehouse for export, shall —

(a)	give a senior officer of customs at least 24 hours’ notice in writing of its intention to pack the export product or export produce;
(b)	submit the export product or export produce to the senior officer of customs for him to examine, weigh and take samples thereof;
(c)	in the presence of the senior officer of customs and under his supervision, pack the export product or export produce in cases or other containers;
(d)	permit the senior officer of customs to lock up, seal, mark or otherwise secure the export product or export produce; and
(e)	provide proper scales and weights, if so required to enable the senior officer of customs to check the weights of the export product or export produce and furnish such proof as that officer may, from time to time, require of the accuracy of the scales.

Sealing, etc., of cases containing export product

6. If the Director-General of Customs and Excise so requires, no case containing export product or export produce shall be removed from the export warehouse until the export product or export produce has been locked up, sealed, marked, or otherwise secured, by a senior officer of customs and every such case shall be exported from Singapore with the locks, seals, marks and other safeguards intact.

Tampering with lock, seal or mark

7. No lock, seal or mark placed by a senior officer of customs on cases containing an export product or export produce shall be opened, broken or altered without his consent.

Declaration for removal from warehouse of export product

8. If the Director-General of Customs and Excise so requires, an export enterprise, desirous of removing any export product or export produce from its export warehouse for export, shall submit to the senior officer of customs at the export warehouse a declaration, in such form as the Minister may approve, of the export product or export produce to be removed. The senior officer of customs shall, thereupon, issue an order authorising the removal of the export product or export produce, as the case may be:

Provided that, in issuing the order, the senior officer of customs may impose such conditions as he may consider necessary for the proper export of such export product or export produce.

Particulars of declaration

9.—(1) The declaration referred to in regulation 8 shall give a full and true account of the particulars for which provision is made in the approved form.

(2) Every such declaration shall be in duplicate or in such other number of copies as the Comptroller and the Trade Development Board may direct.

Export of product on conditions

10. The Director-General of Customs and Excise may, at his discretion, refuse to allow any export product of an export enterprise or export produce of an export enterprise to be exported by vessels below 76 net registered tonnes or may impose such conditions as he thinks necessary on the export of such export product or export produce.

Proof of landing

11. The Director-General of Customs and Excise, the Comptroller or the Trade Development Board may require the export enterprise to produce such proof as to him seems proper that the consignment of an export product or export produce has been landed at the place of destination. In default of such proof, no tax relief shall be allowed.

Time restriction on removal of export product

12. Except with the permission of the Director-General of Customs and Excise, no export product or export produce shall be removed from an export warehouse for export earlier than 6 a.m. or later than 6 p.m. on any working day.

Approved customs checkpoints

13. No export product or export produce shall be exported otherwise than through approved customs check points.

Packing hours

14. The hours during which an export warehouse shall pack an export product or export produce for export shall ordinarily be between 6 a.m. and 12 noon, and 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. on week days and Saturdays.

Variation of packing hours

15. The hours prescribed in regulation 14 may be extended in respect of export warehouses, so long as —

(a)

notice is given in writing to a senior officer of customs not less than one hour before the ordinary closing hour immediately preceding the time when it is desired to have the export warehouse opened; and

(b)

the export enterprise giving the notice required under paragraph (a) pays on demand, after the overtime beyond the hours specified in regulation 14 has been worked, a fee of $10 per hour or part thereof for the attendance of an officer of customs:

Provided that —
(i)	a senior officer of customs may in his discretion approve or refuse any application not presented in the time specified in paragraph (a); and
(ii)	in calculating overtime periods, fractions of an hour exceeding 15 minutes shall count as one hour, and no count shall be taken after the first hour or fractions of an hour not exceeding 15 minutes.

Overtime fee

16. When overtime is requested and where a request is not cancelled before the close of the ordinary office hours immediately preceding the time it was requested that overtime be worked, the export enterprise which made the request shall pay on demand the overtime fee for one hour if an officer of customs has been sent to supervise operations.

Storage for ease of identification

17. Every finished export product or export produce shall be packed and stacked in such manner and in such place as any senior officer of customs may require in order that every package may be readily identified, accounted for and inspected.

Identification card or label for export products

18. Any senior officer of customs may require that every lot or stack of export product or export produce stored in an export warehouse be affixed with an identification card or other label in such form as he may specify. Such identification card or label shall show the quantity and description of the contents of the lot or stack.

Identification marks

19. Any senior officer of customs may require that all packages of export product or export produce ready for export shall be marked with such identification marks and in such manner as he may direct.

Examination of export product

20. Any senior officer of customs may, at any time, direct that any package of export product or export produce in an export warehouse shall be opened, weighed or otherwise examined, and, after the package has been so opened, weighed or examined, may cause the package to be sealed or marked in such manner as he thinks fit.

Operations relating to export product at expense of exporter

21. All necessary operations relating to the loading, shipping, unloading, unshipping, carrying, weighing, measuring, testing, opening, unpacking, repacking, bulking, sorting and marking of an export product or export produce, whether in an export warehouse or at any other place, shall be performed by and at the expense of the export enterprise.

Samples

22.—(1) Any senior officer of customs may at any time, if his duties so require, take samples of any export product or export produce and such samples may be disposed of in such manner as the Director-General of Customs and Excise shall direct.

(2) No payment shall be made for the cost of any sample taken but the senior officer of customs shall give a receipt for any sample so taken.

Removed product not to be returned to warehouse

23. An export product or export produce removed for export shall not be returned to an export warehouse without the permission of the senior officer of customs having first been obtained.

Locks and seals for warehouse

24. Any senior officer of customs may place such locks or seals upon any part of an export warehouse and may require any other safeguards as he thinks necessary for the security of the export product or export produce stored therein pending export. Such safeguards shall be provided by and at the expense of the export enterprise. Where locks, seals or other safeguards are placed upon the doors of any export warehouse, any senior officer of customs shall have access at all times to such doors for the inspection of the locks, seals or other safeguards placed thereon.

Appeal against decision of Comptroller, Trade Development Board or Director-General of Customs and Excise

25. Where it is provided in these Regulations that the decision on any matter rests with the Comptroller, the Trade Development Board or the Director-General of Customs and Excise, then, unless it is specifically provided that such decision is at the discretion of the Comptroller, the Trade Development Board or the Director-General of Customs and Excise, any person aggrieved by that decision may appeal therefrom to the Minister whose decision shall be final.

Fees

26. The Director-General of Customs and Excise may, with the approval of the Minister, charge such fees as he may consider reasonable in respect of any act or service done or rendered by any officer of customs which is not required to be done or rendered under the Act and for which no fee is prescribed by any written law.

Export product as evidence

27. When any export product or export produce is the subject-matter of an offence under the Act or these Regulations and has been seized, it shall be sufficient to open, examine, and, if necessary, test the contents of such proportions of the export product or export produce seized as the senior officer of customs may determine and the court shall presume that the export product or export produce contained in the unopened packages or receptacles are of the same nature, quantity and quality as those found in similar packages or receptacles which have been opened.

Product liable to seizure

28. Any export product or export produce liable to seizure under the provisions of the Act or these Regulations shall also be liable to forfeiture.

Orders for forfeiture or release

29. An order for the forfeiture or for the release of anything liable to forfeiture under the provisions of the Act or these Regulations shall be made by the court before which the prosecution with regard thereto has been held.

Disposal of export product

30. Any export product or export produce forfeited shall be delivered to a senior officer of customs and shall be disposed of at the discretion of the Director-General of Customs and Excise .

Forfeiture if no prosecution

31.—(1) If there is no prosecution with regard to any export product or export produce seized under the Act or these Regulations, such export product or export produce shall be deemed to be forfeited after the expiration of one month from the date of seizure unless a claim thereto is made before that date in the manner hereinafter provided.

(2) Any person asserting that he is the owner of such export product or export produce may personally or by his agent authorised in writing give written notice to a senior officer of customs that he claims that export product or export produce.

(3) On receipt of such notice the Director-General of Customs and Excise may direct that that export product or export produce be released.

Protection of informers

32.—(1) Except as hereinafter provided, no witness in any civil or criminal proceedings shall be obliged or permitted to disclose the name or address of an informer, or the substance of the information received from him, or to state any matter which might lead to his discovery.

(2) If any books, documents or papers which are in evidence or liable to inspection in any civil or criminal proceedings whatsoever contain any entry in which any informer is named or described or which might lead to his discovery, the court shall cause that entry to be concealed from view or to be obliterated so far only as may be necessary to protect the informer from discovery.

(3) If, on the trial of any offence under the Act or these Regulations, the court, after full enquiry into the case, believes that the informer wilfully made in his complaint a material statement which he knew or believed to be false or did not believe to be true, or if in any other proceedings the court is of the opinion that justice cannot be fully done between the parties thereto without the disclosure of the identity of the informer, it shall be lawful for the court to require the production of the original complaint, if in writing, and permit enquiry, and require full disclosure, concerning the informer.

No right to costs, damages, etc.

33. No person shall, in any proceedings before any court in respect of the seizure of any export product or export produce seized in the exercise or purported exercise of any power conferred under the Act or these Regulations, be entitled to the costs of the proceedings or to any damages or other relief other than an order for the return of the export product or export produce or the payment of their value unless the seizure was made without reasonable or probable cause.

Compounding of offences

34. Any offence under section 36, 42 or 101 of the Act or under any of the provisions of these Regulations may be compounded by any senior officer of customs by accepting from the person reasonably suspected of having committed the offence a sum of money not exceeding $1,000.

Saving

35. Nothing in the Act or these Regulations shall be deemed to prevent the prosecution, conviction and punishment of any person under the provisions of any other written law for the time being in force in Singapore, but so that no person shall be punished more than once for the same offence.

Presumption of authority

36. Every person employed on any duty or service relating to the Act or these Regulations pursuant to an order of, or with the concurrence of, the Director-General of Customs and Excise (whether previously or subsequently expressed) shall be deemed to be a senior officer of customs for that duty or service, and every act required by law at any time to be done by or with any particular officer nominated for such purpose, if done by or with any person appointed by the Director-General of Customs and Excise to act for that particular officer shall be deemed to be done by or with that particular officer.

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