Singapore legislation
Section 57
Section 57
Allowance for duty paid for certain instruments
(1)
Subject to the conditions specified in subsection (2) and to such rules as the Minister may make and to the production of such evidence by statutory declaration or otherwise as the Commissioner may require, allowance is to be made by the Commissioner for the duty paid in respect of any of the following instruments:
an instrument executed by any party thereto, but afterwards found to be absolutely void from the beginning;
an instrument executed by any party thereto, but afterwards found unfit, by reason of any error or mistake in the instrument, for the purpose originally intended;
an instrument executed by any party thereto, which has not been made use of for any purpose whatever, and which by reason of the inability or refusal of some necessary party to sign the instrument or to complete the transaction according to the instrument is incomplete and insufficient for the purpose for which it was intended;
an instrument executed by any party thereto, which by reason of the inability or refusal of any person to act under the instrument, or for want of registration within the time required by law, fails of the intended purpose or becomes void;
an instrument executed by any party thereto, which is inadvertently and undesignedly spoiled, and in lieu of which another instrument made between the same parties and for the same purpose is executed and duly stamped, or which becomes useless in consequence of the transaction intended to be thereby effected being effected by some other instrument duly stamped.
(2)
The conditions mentioned in subsection (1) are —
the application for allowance is made within 6 months after the date of the stamp or in the case of an executed instrument after the date of the instrument or if it is not dated within 6 months after the execution thereof by the person by whom it was first or alone executed or within such further time as the Commissioner may prescribe in the case of any instrument sent abroad for execution or when from unavoidable circumstances any instrument for which another has been substituted cannot be produced within that period; and
in the case of an executed instrument no legal proceeding has been commenced in which the instrument could or would have been given or offered in evidence, and that the instrument is surrendered to the Commissioner, unless the Commissioner dispenses with such surrender in a particular case.