JURONG TOWN CORPORATION (AMENDMENT) BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

The Minister for Trade and Industry (Mr Goh Chok Tong): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

This Bill seeks to make a number of amendments to the Jurong Town Corporation Act, mainly to Part IV of the Act which deals with the sale of flats, houses and other buildings owned by the Corporation. The amendments made to the Act are based on similar amendments made to Part IV of the Housing and Development Act which deals with the sale of Housing Board flats and buildings.

At present, an applicant or owner of a Jurong Town Corporation flat, his spouse or authorised occupier is not allowed to own any other property. The Bill seeks to allow such applicant or owner, his spouse or authorised occupier with the written consent of the Corporation to purchase any commercial property not exceeding $250,000 in value, or such higher value as the Minister may allow, if he uses it to carry on his own business. The amendment is similar to that made to the Housing and Development Act.

Recently amendments have been made to the Housing and Development Act to enable the Housing and Development Board, through its authorised officers, to act for parties in the resales and in other transactions of Housing Board flats in cases where the parties are not represented by any solicitors. The Bill seeks to empower the Corporation to provide similar services for owners of Jurong Town Corporation flats in the resale or other disposition of their flats. This is to help the flat owners to reduce legal costs.

The Act allows the Corporation to acquire a flat sold by the Corporation if the owner contravenes certain provisions of the Act. However, for less serious offences, this penalty is considered too harsh and can cause considerable hardship to a family. In line with the Housing and Development Act, the Bill seeks to enable the Corporation to impose penalties on the owners who contravene the Act, instead of acquiring the flats, where the offences are not serious.

Under the existing rules of the Corporation, a person cannot apply for a Jurong Town Corporation flat if he owns a property during the 30-month period before the date of his application for such flat. He is also prohibited from owning another property after the date of the purchase of a flat. The Bill seeks to extend this prohibition to cover the period between the date of application and the date of purchase of a flat.

The Bill also empowers the Corporation to take enforcement action where the flat is misused by the owner or any other occupier of the flat. Under the existing law, the Corporation can take such action only if the owner has misused the flat.

The other aspect of the Bill is to make clear that any notice or document sent by the Corporation to the owner of a flat by registered post or affixed to some conspicuous part of the flat shall be deemed to be of good service. This will enable the Corporation to serve notices on owners of flats who try to evade service of notices by locking up their flats and staying away.

Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.

The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. - [Mr Goh Chok Tong].

Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment: read a Third time and passed.