PROPERTY TAX (Notices for payment)

Mr Tay Boon Too asked the Minister for Finance (a) whether notices for payment of property tax on attap or wooden houses are sent annually to the house-owners so as to avoid their having to pay accumulated arrears for as many as five years' tax in one payment; and (b) whether he is aware that some such house-owners who had been ordered to demolish their houses have had to pay five years' arrears of property tax.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance (Mr Tang See Chim) (for the Minister for Finance): Mr Speaker, Sir, notices for payment of property tax in respect of known attap or wooden houses are sent out half-yearly, although, in law, property owners are required to pay property tax in respect of their property without demand.

Sir, it is known that there had been, cases of landlords who, with a view to evading property tax, had let out their property and collected rents without informing the tax department and without paying property tax. When these cases were discovered, these landlords were made to pay the property tax due, notwithstanding the fact that the property in question was under an order for demolition.