Singapore legislation

Clause 9

Matters for reference to the Commission

(1)

The Minister may refer to the Commission for inquiry and report any of the following matters requiring in his opinion: —

(a)

the grant of protection (whether by the grant of subsidies or the levy of protective duties or in any other suitable form) for the encouragement of any industry in Singapore, including any industry which has not commenced production but which is likely to do so if granted suitable protection;

(b)

modification or abolition of any prevailing customs or other duties levied for the protection of any industry according to the circumstances of the case; or

(c)

action to be taken where an industry is taking undue advantage of the tariff protection granted to it, particularly with reference to whether the protected industry is —

(i)

charging unnecessarily high prices for its products;

(ii)

acting or omitting to act in a manner which results in high prices being charged to consumers through limitation of quantity, deterioration in quality or inflation of the cost of production and the like; or

(iii)

acting in restraint of trade to the detriment of the public.

(2)

The Minister may also refer to the Commission for inquiry and report any of the following matters, and the Commission may, in submitting a report in respect of any of the matters referred to in subsection (1) of this section, have due regard to such of the following matters as may be relevant to such report: —

(a)

the effect of protection on —

(i)

the general level of prices in Singapore;

(ii)

the cost of living of any specified section of the community; or

(iii)

the different sectors of the economy of Singapore;

(b)

the effect of tariff concessions under trade or commercial agreements on the development of any specified industry;

(c)

any anomalies that may result from the working of protective duties;

(d)

the prices of particular commodities, whether protected or not;

(e)

the manner in which protection in relation to any industry has been working, with particular reference to —

(i)

the cost of production of the protected commodity;

(ii)

the scale of output of the protected industry;

(iii)

the quality of the protected commodity;

(iv)

the prospects of future expansion of the protected industry;

(v)

the relative competitive position of the industry land the factors entering into it; or

(vi)

any other factors having a bearing on the usefulness of the industry to the economy of Singapore; or

(f)

any special conditions which may have been imposed on a protected industry, with particular reference to —

(i)

the extent to which and the manner in which the obligations have been discharged;

(ii)

the further steps that would be necessary to implement them fully; or

(iii)

the difficulties, if any, in the way of the full discharge of such obligations.

(3)

Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (1) and (2) of this section, the Minister may refer to the Commission for inquiry and report such other matters as may, in his opinion, be desirable to refer to it.

Read in full context — Tariff Advisory Commission Ordinance →