The Ministry of Finance will be conducting a public consultation on the draft GST (Amendment) Bill 2011. This exercise will run from 8 July to 28 July 2011.

Proposed Amendments

The draft GST (Amendment) Bill 2011 incorporates the following tax changes:

Budget 2011 changes – These are tax changes announced in the 2011 Budget Statement which seek to promote the marine, biomedical and logistics sectors and lower their GST compliance costs:

• introduce a new scheme to allow ‘approved marine customers’ to buy or rent zero-rated goods for use or installation on a commercial ship that is wholly for international travel;
• expand the scope of zero-rating of repair and maintenance services performed on parts and components of a qualifying ship;
• introduce changes to ease GST compliance for ships which are in Singapore only for a temporary period of time;
• extend the Approved Contract Manufacturer and Trader Scheme to qualifying biomedical contract manufacturers. Approved contract manufacturers (including those in the biomedical sector) will also be allowed to disregard GST on services rendered on failed or excess production, and to recover GST on local purchases of goods used in the contract manufacturing process;
• grant import GST relief for all clinical trial materials imported into Singapore;
• introduce new zero-rating relief for specified supplies made to overseas persons if they are related to specified goods kept in ‘approved specialised warehouses’ in Singapore;

Other changes – These changes arise from the ongoing review of the GST regime, and seek to clarify existing GST legislation and improve GST administration:

• expand the scope for local agents in Singapore to recover GST on goods imported on behalf of overseas persons; and
• clarify the GST accounting rules for specified transactions.

Consultation Details

The public can access the consultation documents together with the explanations for the draft GST (Amendment) Bill 2011 on the Ministry of Finance's website and the REACH consultation portal . Respondents may send their comments to the Ministry of Finance directly via the website, email, fax or post.