The Ministry of Finance will be conducting a public consultation on the draft GST (Amendment) Bill 2015 from 13 July to 31 July 2015.

Proposed Amendments

2. 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:

a. 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. Under the Tourist Refund Scheme, only eligible tourists are allowed to claim a refund of the GST paid on goods purchased in and brought out of Singapore. In view that a wrongful tourist refund owed is no different from a tax due to the Government, the Comptroller will be granted powers to impose a Travel Restriction Order on a person who fails to repay a tourist refund wrongly claimed under the Tourist Refund Scheme. This ineligible claimant will be allowed to leave the country after he repays the refund wrongly claimed;

b. 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; 
 

c. Clarifying the scope of zero-rating in relation to merchandise for sale on board an aircraft or ship. This is a technical change to clarify that zero-rating applies to the supply of goods for use as merchandise for retail sale on board an aircraft or ship.

Consultation Details

3.  The public can access the consultation documents and explanations for the draft GST (Amendment) Bill 2015 on the Ministry of Finance's website (http://www.mof.gov.sg) and the REACH consultation portal (http://www.reach.gov.sg). Respondents may send their comments to the Ministry of Finance directly via the website, email, fax, or post. 

Ministry of Finance