We refer to the letter “Property tax hike for Keppel Club not reasonable” (BT, June 13) by Denis Distant.

Property owners may carry out addition and alteration (A&A) works to improve the properties. For most of these cases, their annual values are reviewed within one to two years after the A&A works are completed. For a minority of the cases, where the nature of improvements is extensive and occurs over a period of time, we would need more information from the property owners for the review.

The annual value of Keppel Club was revised in 2011 to account for some major improvement works done on the property in 2006. We agree with Mr Distant that the annual value should have been revised sooner. However, we are unable to comment on the specifics of this case. We are already in contact with the property owner on the matter.

We thank Mr Distant for the opportunity to clarify.

Walter Lim
Director (Corporate Communications)
Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore