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Legal Updates |
Legislation
Children Development Co-Savings (Amendment)
Bill 2006 (B21/2006)
The Children Development Co-Savings (Amendment)
Bill 2006 (B21/2006) was introduced in Parliament on 8 November 2006 and
passed on 22 January 2007.
When the changes take place, section 9
of the Children Development Co-Savings Act will be amended to provide for the
extension of paid maternity leave to a female confinements, not with standing
that the child is not a Singapore citizen or is not a legitimate child at the
time of the child birth, as long as certain other requirements are satisfied.
Section 9A of the Act will be amended
to set out the eligibility criteria for maternity benefits and the maximum
amounts that a female employee is entitled to be paid by her employer. If the
child is not a
Charities (Amendment) Bill 2006 (B22/2006)
The Charities (Amendment) Bill 2006 (B22/2006)
(the ‘Bill) was read a second time and passed in Parliament on 23 January 2007.
The key changes that will be made to
the Charities Act (the ‘Act’) pursuant to the Bill are as follows:
1 Regulation of institutions of
a public character (‘IPCs’) under the Act.
2 Expanding the definition of ‘fund-raising
appeal’.
3 Additional functions, duties
and powers of the Commissioner of Charities (the ‘COC’).
4 Establishment of a Charity
Council.
Regulation of IPCs
A new Part VIIIA
comprising new sections 40A, 40B and 40C will be
inserted in the Act to govern the regulation of IPCs. The regulatory regime for
IPCs will be migrated from the Income Tax Act to
the Act.
These new provisions in the Act will
also provide for the appointment of sector administrators who will be carrying
out the duties of approving and regulating IPCs for the COC. Central fund
administrators who are appointed under the Income Tax Act to administer the
regulation of IPCs will be replaced by sector administrators appointed under
the Act.
There is a transitional provision in
the Bill that deems any approval granted to an IPC under the Income Tax Act as
an approval under the Act after the Bill comes into force. As such, the tax
benefits applicable to the IPC for the remainder of the duration for which the
IPC approval was earlier granted under the Income Tax Act will be preserved.
Expanding
definition of ‘fund raising appeal’
The Bill will also introduce a revised
definition of ‘fund-raising appeal’ that is broad enough to include appeals in
any form, whether the appeals are made expressly or impliedly, or whether or
not words such as ‘appeal’, ‘fund-raising’ and the like are actually used.
Additional
functions, duties and powers of the COC
The new powers that will be granted to
the COC include:
1 suspending or removing any
trustee, charity trustee, officer, agent or employee of the charity from being
a member of the charity (new section 25A of the Act);
2 directing any person to apply
any property held by or on trust for a charity (even after the charity has
ceased to exist or operate) to apply the property properly for the purposes of
the charity (new sections 26A and 26B of the Act); and
3 prohibiting,
stopping or restricting (by imposing conditions) the conduct of any fund-raising
appeal by any charity or person (new section 39B of the Act).
Establishment
of Charity Council
The Act will contain a new Part IIA
which provides for the establishment and functions of the Charity Council which
will be tasked to advise the COC’s office on its regulatory work, in addition
to promoting self-regulation and good governance standards in the charity
sector.
Monetary Authority of
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (Amendment)
Bill 2007 was tabled and read for the first time in Parliament on 22 January 2007.
It seeks to amend the Monetary Authority of Singapore Act principally:
1 to state the principal
objects of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (the ‘MAS’) in carrying out its
functions and to update the functions which it performs;
2 to state the circumstances
under which the MAS may lend to the Government or public authority and
subscribe to securities issued by the Government or public authority;
3 to enable the board of
directors to approve investments of the MAS instead of the President;
4 to provide for and clarify
various disclosure duties of the MAS;
5 to enable the MAS to make
regulations to deal with money laundering and terrorism financing; and
6 to enable
the MAS to approve dispute resolution schemes for the resolution of disputes
arising from provision of financial services and to require financial
institutions to be members of such schemes.
The Bill also makes related amendments
to the Currency Act.
Elizabeth Wong
Allen & Gledhill