Skills Development Levy Act 1979 · 2020 Revised Edition · Part 4 · Offences and Enforcement Powers
15. Powers to verify information and call for returns
Feedback & supportLast amended by an amending law of 2023. 2 amendments in all.
The powers under this section may be exercised only for the purpose of inquiring into or ascertaining the liability of a person to pay the levy, or whether the levy has been duly paid.
levy
“skills development levy” or “levy” means skills development levy imposed by this Act;
An authorised person may, at any reasonable time, do any of the following, without involving any search of any property or person:
enter any premises;
photograph or film, or make audio recordings or make sketches of, any part of the premises or anything at the premises;
require any person in the premises to provide or grant access to, without charge, any document or information reasonably required for any purpose in subsection (1);
inspect and make copies of or take extracts from any such document;
take possession of such a document if, in the opinion of the authorised person —
the inspection or copying of or extraction from the document cannot reasonably be performed without taking possession;
the document may be interfered with or destroyed unless possession is taken; or
the document may be required as evidence in any proceedings instituted or commenced for any of the purposes of, or in connection with, this Act or any regulations made under this Act;
require any person to provide, within the time specified in the notice, any information that may be required, or to complete and deliver any return specified.
The power to require a person to provide any document or information under subsection (2)(c) includes the power —
to require the person, or any person who is or was an officer or employee of that person, to provide an explanation of the document or information;
if the document or information is not provided, to require the person to state, to the best of the person’s knowledge and belief, where it is; and
if the information is recorded otherwise than in legible form, to require the information to be made available to the authorised person in legible form.
If any document is kept in electronic form, the power of an authorised person who is an employee of the Agency, a public officer or an officer of another statutory authority —
employee
“employee”, in relation to a month, means an employee rendering in that month services wholly or partly in Singapore and an employee who is on leave during that month where such leave is attributable to services rendered wholly or partly in Singapore in any previous month, but does not include any domestic servant, gardener or chauffeur, wholly and exclusively employed by an individual otherwise than in connection with his or her trade, business, profession or vocation;
to inspect and make copies of or take extracts from any document under subsection (2)(d) includes the power to —
access any computer or other equipment (including a mobile telephone, thumb drive or hard disk) in which the document is stored; and
require any person having charge of, or otherwise concerned with the operation of, the computer or other equipment to provide assistance in gaining such access; and
to take possession of the document under subsection (2)(e) includes the power to —
make copies of or take extracts from the document in legible or electronic form; and
transfer the information from the document to a thumb drive, hard disk, tape or other storage device.