INCOME TAX ORDINANCE (Addition to First Schedule)

4.50 p.m.

The Acting Financial Secretary (Mr Oon Khye Kiang): Sir, I beg to move.

That this Assembly, pursuant to subsection (1) of section 106 of the Income Tax Ordinance (Chapter 166), resolves that the Malayan Pineapple Industry Board be added to the First Schedule to the said Ordinance.

Sir, an application has been received from the Malayan Pineapple Industry Board to be exempted from income tax, under section 13 (1) (e) of the Ordinance by the inclusion of the Board in the First Schedule to the Ordinance.

This Board is a pan-Malayan body which has been set up in accordance with the Pineapple Industry Ordinance, 1957, enacted both in Singapore and in the Federation of Malaya. It has taken over and continued the work previously done by the Pineapple Joint Industrial Council and the Registrars constituted under the Pineapple Industry Ordinance of 1951.

The main functions of the Board are to administer the Pineapple Industry Fund the resources of which are derived from cesses on exports of canned pineapple, to negotiate agreements on prices and grades of pineapple for sale to canneries, to regulate production, grading and marketing of pineapple, and to conduct research into the cultivation and processing of pineapple and its by-products, and to deal with other matters affecting the industry. Members of the Board are appointed by the two Governments to represent the various interests of the industry.

The Malayan Board of Income Tax has considered this case and recommends that the Malayan Pineapple Industry Board may properly be included in the First Schedule to the Ordinance with effect from 1st January, 1957, and Government accepts the recommendation of the Board.

Section 106 of the Income Tax Ordinance gives powers to the Legislative Assembly by resolution to add to, vary or revoke the whole or part of any Schedule to the Ordinance. The First Schedule to the Ordinance specifies the institutions, authorities, persons or funds whose income is exempted from income tax under section 13 (1) (e) of the Income Tax Ordinance.

Sir, I beg to move.

The Minister for Education (Mr Chew Swee Kee): I second it.

Question put, and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this Assembly, pursuant to subsection (1) of section 106 of the Income Tax Ordinance (Chapter 166), resolves that the Malayan Pineapple Industry Board he added to the First Schedule to the said Ordinance.