(July 13, 2015)

On July 13, 2015 the Singaporean Ministry of Finance  announced that it opened a public consultation on the draft Good and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill 2015 and that it invites the Public to give feedback on the GST (Amendment) Bill 2015. The consultation will run from July 13, 2015 to July 31, 2015.

According to the press release issued by the Singaporean Ministry of Finance the draft GST (Amendment) Bill 2015 provides for three changes to existing tax policies and administration that arose from on-going reviews of Singapore’s GST system. These are:

• Allowing the Comptroller of GST to impose a Travel Restriction Order on a person who fails to repay a tourist refund wrongly claimed under the Tourist Refund Scheme;

• Revising the definition of “aircraft” for the purpose of zero-rating supplies made in relation to an aircraft, and extending zero-rating to specific supplies made in relation to non-qualifying aircraft. (“The policy intent is to zero-rate supplies of and supplies relating to aircrafts that are used for international travel and international transportation of passengers and goods. To affirm this policy intent, the definition of “aircraft” will be revised to refer to any aircraft that is wholly used or intended to be wholly used for international travel, or any military aircraft. Zero-rating will also be extended to specific supplies relating to international flights made by a non-qualifying aircraft, as they are regarded as consumed outside Singapore”);

• Clarifying the scope of zero-rating in relation to merchandise for sale on board an aircraft or ship

   

The consultation documents as issued by the Singaporean authorities can be found here or here.

For further information click here to be forwarded to the press release as published on the website of Singaporean Ministry of Finance in this respect.

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