1. Statutes (Misc. Amendements) Bill
Mr Speaker sir,
May I draw the attention of this House to the Bankruptcy Act, which Clause 13 of this bill seeks to amend. This clause makes changes to the adjournment of bankruptcy cases in court and to bankruptcy applications. I have two questions for the Minister: – Firstly, can the Minister provide us with the number of bankrupt individuals sent for debt restructuring schemes, against the number of those who are discharged, in the past year? What I would like to know is whether the numbers of bankrupt individuals are increasing or dropping, or if a majority of them are simply sent for debt restructuring schemes. Secondly, I am reminded of a recent case that was reported last month (December 2011), in which the bankruptcy orders for three former directors of the National Kidney Foundation – Richard Yong, Mathilda Chua, and the late Loo Say San – were annulled. This was not been sufficiently examined by the media.[1] Would the Minister give details of this case and an account of the annulment of the bankruptcy orders for these ex-directors of the NKF? I am sure Singaporeans would like to know more about bankruptcy laws in Singapore and how they have been applied to major cases like the NKF saga of 2006. Thank you.
[1] Note: it appears that only Lianhe Zaobao reported this annulment case, on 13 December 2011, but did not really explain the reasons behind the annulment.
2. Economic Expansion Incentives (Relief from Income Tax) (Amendment) Bill
Mr Speaker sir,
With Clause 3 in this amendment bill, there seems to be now more flexibility in the tax relief period that pioneer service companies can enjoy. I am not sure why the minimum requirement of 5 years of tax relief is being removed. Nonetheless my interest in this lies in whether our local enterprises are benefitting from this pioneer status scheme. Could I therefore ask the Minister about the historical record of the issuance of pioneer status – how many certificates have been given to local SMEs versus those given to foreign companies and MNCs? Thank you.
