The Minister for Finance has appointed Mrs Tan Ching Yee, incoming Permanent Secretary (Finance), as the Chairman of the Board of Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (“IRAS Board”) with effect from 1 May 2016. She succeeds Mr Peter Ong Boon Kwee who has been the Board Chairman of IRAS Board since 1 October 2009. Mr Ong will be relinquishing his Chairmanship appointment on the same day as he takes on his new appointment as Permanent Secretary (Prime Minister’s Office)(Strategy) concurrently with his appointment as Head, Civil Service.

With Mr Ong helming the board, IRAS reviewed many rules and launched multiple initiatives to make taxpaying effortless and hassle-free. Singapore is now one of the top five tax jurisdictions recognised for our ease of paying taxes. Today, Singapore remains the world’s easiest place to do business ¹. 

Mr Ong’s focus on leveraging analytics and research to gain tax insights has propelled IRAS to build up its business analytics capabilities. This has enabled IRAS to better identify emerging trends to improve taxpayer service, and enhance compliance efforts. This also allowed IRAS and Ministry of Finance to exploit data analytics for tax policy formulation.

Under Mr Ong’s stewardship, IRAS has made significant strides in making a mark internationally, representing Singapore as Vice-Chair of the Peer Review Group, a member of the Steering Group at the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes and a participant of OECD’s Committee on Fiscal Affairs.

The Ministry of Finance and the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore would like to express their appreciation to outgoing Chairman, Mr Peter Ong for his significant contributions to the IRAS Board, and welcome Mrs Tan Ching Yee to the Board.

A brief write-up of the new Chairman and outgoing Chairman is attached at Annex A (PDF, 134KB).

The Board of the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore comprises nine members, including the Chairman. The current list of members is at Annex B (PDF, 9KB).

Ministry of Finance

[1] “Doing Business 2016: Measuring Regulatory Quality and Efficiency” by the World Bank Group