Legislation

New Acts

Land Titles (Amendment) Bill 2003 (B8/2003)

The Land Titles (Amendment) Bill 2003 seeks to amend the Land Titles Act primarily to provide for the lodgment of instruments in electronic form. A new Section 51A will be inserted for this purpose.

Other changes include the following:

• Section 52(1) will be amended to clarify that except for a lease to be comprised in a manual folio, a mortgage, charge or lease presented for registration need not be lodged in duplicate.
• Section 57 will be amended to allow the Registrar of Land Titles in certain cases to dispense with proof of due execution of an instrument intended for registration under the Act.
• An amended s 58 will provide for how electronic instruments are to be executed by a corporation.
• Section 59 will be amended to provide that a certificate of correctness that is signed by the solicitor employed by the party to the instrument must state that the solicitor holds a practising certificate which is in force as at the date of the instrument.
• Section 127(2) will be amended to alter the period within which a caveator may seek to prevent the cancellation of his caveat upon a caveatee lodging with the Registrar a statutory declaration contending that the caveat has been lodged, or is being allowed to remain, vexatiously or frivolously or not in good faith.
• Section 132(2) will be amended to enable the Registrar to accept copies of writs or orders instead of the original or file copies of the writs or orders.
• Section 143(4) will be amended to clarify that upon the cancellation of a folio of the land register pursuant to the registration of an instrument of acquisition, the Registrar shall issue a new folio for the estate or interest not affected by the acquisition.
• Section 161, which pertains to searches by members of the public, will be amended to clarify that the section also applies to imaged instruments and to limit public search of electronic instruments to only such electronic instruments as the Registrar may determine.
  

Statutes (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2003 (B7/2003)

The Statutes (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2003 seeks to effect amendments to various statutes including the following:

• the definition of ‘prescribed’ in Section 2(1) of the Interpretation Act will be amended to facilitate the use of electronic forms;
• Section 46 of the Arbitration Act will be amended to empower the High Court in Singapore to enforce an arbitral award irrespective of whether the place of arbitration is Singapore or elsewhere;
• Section 36(3) of the Bankruptcy Act will be amended to provide that a private trustee will not have the power to issue a certificate of annulment under Section 95A (where a composition or scheme is accepted by the creditors) or under Section 123A (where the proved debt and the expenses of the bankruptcy have been fully paid). Such powers will only be exercisable by the Official Assignee;
• Section 22(1) of the Business Registration Act will be amended to make it an offence for any undischarged bankrupt, whether he was adjudicated bankrupt by a Singapore court or a foreign court having jurisdiction in bankruptcy, to take part in or be concerned in the management of any business required to be registered under that Act without the leave of the High Court or the written permission of the Official Assignee;
• Section 320(2) and (3) of the Companies Act will be amended to require the liquidator of a company that has been wound up to keep the relevant books and papers of the company for a period of two years instead of five years as is presently the case;
• Section 23(1) of the Land Acquisition Act will be amended to allow the Collector of Land Revenue to waive the need for appellants to deposit security for costs in suitable cases;
• Section 21(2) of the Moneylenders Act will be amended to allow for the information that is required to be submitted by a moneylender when proving a debt due to him in respect of a loan made by him to be prescribed by general rules made under the Bankruptcy Act;
• the Payment and Settlement Systems (Finality and Netting) Act 2002 will be amended by inserting two new sections, namely:
  1. Section 16A, which empowers the Monetary Authority of Singapore to compound offences under that Act that are prescribed as compoundable offences; and
  2. Section 16B, which confers on a District Court jurisdiction to try any offence under that Act and power to impose the full penalty or punishment in respect of the offence.
     

Road Traffic (Amendment) Act 2003 (A1/2003)

The Road Traffic (Amendment) Act 2003 has come into force on 17 March 2003.

The Road Traffic Act is amended for various purposes including the introduction of a new Section 23A requiring a manufacturer or dealer of vehicles, on becoming aware of any safety-related defect in any vehicle manufactured or sold by him, to notify the Registrar of Vehicles and the owner of such vehicle of the defect, and to rectify the defect upon the vehicle being presented for rectification pursuant to the notice.

Customs (Amendment) Act 2003 (A4/2003)

The Customs Act has been amended for various purposes with effect from 1 April 2003.

Most notably, Section 22 of the Customs Act has been amended to provide that, for the purposes of levying excise duty, the value of any imported or locally-manufactured goods, other than motor spirit, shall be determined according to the regulations made pursuant to Section 22.

There has also been a change in the name of office titles. All references to ‘Director-General of Customs and Excise’ have been replaced with reference to ‘Director-General of Customs’. Similar changes have been made to other office titles.

Infectious Diseases (Amendment) Act 2003 (A5/2003)

The Infectious Diseases Act is amended with effect from 1 April 2003 for the purposes including the following:

• enlargement of the definition of ‘infectious disease’ to include certain diseases that are not specified in the First Schedule but which if left uninvestigated or unchecked would result in an epidemic of that disease;
• Section 8(3) is amended whereby the failure on the part of a person to comply with any requirement of the Director of Medical Services to be medically examined is an offence, and the Director can order the removal of the person to any hospital or place where he may be detained until he is free from infection;
• Section 26 is amended to enable the Minister for Health to prohibit any person or class of persons from an infected area from entering Singapore except under such conditions as he may specify;
• Section 47 has been amended to enhance the Minister’s power to order the compulsory vaccination of persons in the event of an outbreak or imminent outbreak of an infectious disease.

Arms and Explosives (Amendment) Act 2002 (A30/2002)

The Arms and Explosives (Amendment) Act has come into force on 21 March 2003.

The Arms and Explosives Act is amended to give effect to the Convention on the Marking of Plastic Explosives for the Purpose of Detection concluded in Montreal on 1 March 1991 and for other miscellaneous purposes. Essentially, a person will be prohibited from manufacturing any unmarked plastic explosive unless such unmarked plastic explosive is manufactured in a quantity no greater than that necessary for the purposes specified in the Act.

New Subsidiary Legislation

Property Tax (Non-Residential Buildings) (Remission) Order 2003 (S120/2003)

The remission on property tax under the Property Tax (Non-Residential Buildings) (Remission) Order 2003 shall come into operation on 1 July 2003 and shall remain in operation until 31 December 2003 (both dates inclusive).

There shall be a remission of the following amounts in respect of any building or part thereof which is permitted under the Planning Act to be used for any purpose other than human habitation:

(a) in the case of any building or part thereof owned and let by the following statutory boards, 15% of any payment made in lieu of tax under Section 6(7) of the Act:

(i) Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore;
(ii) Housing and Development Board;
(iii) Jurong Town Corporation;
(iv) Public Utilities Board;
(v) Urban Redevelopment Authority;

(b) in any other case, the aggregate of:

(i) 100% of the tax payable on the first $40,000 of the annual value of the building or part thereof; and

(ii) 15% of the tax payable on the annual value of the building or part thereof exceeding $40,000.

The Property Tax (Non-Residential Buildings) (Remission) Order 2003 does not apply to:

(a) any building or part thereof owned and occupied by any statutory board for which payment in lieu of tax is made under Section 6(7) of the Act;
(b) any building or part thereof owned and let by any statutory board, other than a statutory board specified in the Schedule, for which payment in lieu of tax is made under Section 6(7) of the Act;
(c) any building or part thereof situated or being erected on any land where the annual value of that property has been assessed as if it were vacant land under Section 2(3)(b) of the Act; or
(d) any building or part thereof situated or being erected on that part of any land which has been demarcated as excess land under Section 2(5) of the Act and where the annual value has been separately assessed by deeming that part of the land as vacant land.

Infectious Diseases Act (Amendment of First and Second Schedules) Notification 2003 (S127/2003)

The First Schedule and the Second Schedule of the Infectious Diseases Act have been amended with effect from 17 March 2003 with the inclusion of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

The First Schedule and the Second Schedule list infectious diseases and dangerous infectious diseases respectively.

Newspaper and Printing Presses (Exemption) Order 2003 (S131/2003)

Effective from 1 April 2003, Section 5 of the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act, insofar as it relates to the requirement that a document printed within Singapore shall have printed legibly on its first or last printed leaf the name of its printer, shall not apply in respect of a document printed within Singapore for distribution outside Singapore if the printer:

(a) informs the Registrar in writing before he prints the document; and
(b) prints the words ‘Printed in Singapore’ legibly on the first or last printed leaf of the document.

Companies (Cancellation) Notification 2003 (S133/2003)

Pursuant to the Companies (Cancellation) Notification 2003, the Declarations – Public Authorities – Consolidation (Decl 3) and Gazette Notification No 878 published on 1 April 1999 are cancelled. The cancellations are operative from 1 April 2003.

Under the Declarations – Public Authorities – Consolidation (Decl 3), the Minister of Finance had declared the following bodies corporate incorporated in Singapore to be public authorities for the purposes of the Companies Act pursuant to the powers conferred by the definition of ‘corporation’ in Section 4(1) of the Companies Act:

• Jurong Town Corporation;
• Port of Singapore Authority;
• Tourist Promotion Board;
• Economic Development Board;
• Housing and Development Board;
• Board of Commissioners of Currency, Singapore;
• Public Utilities Board;
• Telecommunication Authority of Singapore; and
• Central Provident Fund Board.
  

Pursuant to Gazette Notification No 878/99, the Land Transport Authority was declared to be a public authority with effect from 18 March 1999.

Elizabeth Wong
Allen and Gledhill