NATIONAL REGISTRATION (AMENDMENT) BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

The Minister for Home Affairs (Mr Wong Kan Seng): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

The Government seeks constantly to improve its service to the public. This Bill is an example of these efforts. The Bill will provide the legal framework to introduce a One-Stop Change of Address Reporting Service, or OSCARS, in short.

How OSCARS will work

An IC holder who changes his residential address is required under the National Registration Act ("the NRA") to report his new residential address to the National Registration Department ("the NRD"). He is also required under other written laws to report the new address to other Government departments, statutory authorities or public officers (I group them as "agencies") with whom he has dealings. These agencies include the Inland Revenue Department, the Registry of Companies and Businesses, the Registry of Vehicles, the Traffic Police, and so on.

The IC holder who changes his residential address has to report his change of address to different agencies. For example, if he uses his residential address for income tax purposes, he has to inform the Comptroller of Income Tax. If he holds a driving licence, he has to notify the Deputy Commissioner of Police. If he is an operationally ready national serviceman, he has to inform his unit.

It is inconvenient for the IC holder to report his change of address to all the Government agencies that he has dealings with. He also runs the risk of forgetting to report the change to some and thereby committing an offence. Often, too, these agencies have a window period for reporting. For example, an operationally ready national serviceman has to inform his unit within seven days of his change of address.

When OSCARS is implemented, an IC holder need no longer make multiple reports of his change of residential address to the different agencies. The task will become more convenient and simple as he needs only to report the change once. The reporting can be done at the National Registration Office (NRO) in Colombo Court, any Neighbourhood Police Post (NPP) or any Police Division Headquarters (HQ). The information will then be transmitted via computer links to participating agencies on the next working day. The participating agencies will then update their records accordingly. Apart from making it easier for the IC holder to report his change of address to all the different Government agencies which require him to do so, the risk of him forgetting to report his change of address to these agencies will be eliminated.

OSCARS is targeted to be implemented in March 1995. Eleven agencies will be participants. Other agencies will be added as and when they wish to join OSCARS.

Amendments to the National Registration Act and other Acts

For OSCARS to work, the Commissioner of National Registration will be required to transmit address changes reported under the NRA. The participating agencies will accept the information of a change of residential address transmitted, without requiring the IC holder to report the change separately to them. With this, the IC holder would have satisfied the respective written laws of the participating agencies that require him to report his change of residential address once he reports the change under the NRA.

As such, section 8 of the NRA will be amended to confer upon the Commissioner a duty to transmit a change of residential address reported under the NRA to the agencies whose own laws require a change of residential address to be reported.

A new provision will be added to the NRA to exclude the Government and any person involved in transmitting addresses under OSCARS from being liable for any loss or damage suffered by anyone due to errors or omissions made in good faith and in the ordinary course of duty. The indemnity will also cover persons receiving the address change. This provision is not a new idea as it is also found in other legislation such as the Companies Act, the Urban Redevelopment Authority Act and the Singapore Broadcasting Authority Act.

Amendments will be made to the relevant Acts and Subsidiary Legislation of participating agencies to provide that a person will be deemed to have complied with his requirement to report his change of residential address to the agencies if he has reported his change of address under the NRA.

There are four Acts which contain provisions requiring a change of residential address to be reported. They will be amended by consequential amendments to the NRA. These Acts are:-

(a) the Business Registration Act;

(b) the Companies Act;

(c) the Income Tax Act; and

(d) the Pharmacists Registration Act.

At the same time, similar amendments will be made to the Subsidiary Legislation by the various Ministries responsible for them. The effect of all these amendments will be that when OSCARS is implemented, the IC holder will be deemed to have complied with the reporting requirements under the respective written law of participating agencies which he is subjected to when he reports his change of residential address under the NRA.

Miscellaneous Amendments in the National Registration Act

There are two other amendments to the NRA. These concern the re-registration of NRIC exercise, which will end in 1995. The NRA provides that it is an offence not to re-register for the new credit-card-sized NRICs within this stipulated time period. The old laminated NRICs will also cease to be valid after 1995. There will, however, be persons who for whatever reason will not re-register by end-1995. Provision will be made to allow for late re-registration by these late-comers. The Commissioner will also be given the discretion to compound the offence of late re-registration instead of taking these late-comers to court. A new subsection will therefore be added to section 6 of the NRA to allow for late re-registration. Section 13 will also be amended to expand the list of compoundable offences to include failure to re-register within the prescribed period.

Conclusion

To sum up, the National Registration Act and four other Acts, namely, the Business Registration Act, the Companies Act, the Income Tax Act and the Pharmacists Registration Act will be amended to facilitate the implementation of OSCARS, the One-Stop Change of Address Reporting Service. With the introduction of OSCARS, in order to have complied with all written laws requiring him to report a change of address, an IC holder need only report his change of residential address once to the National Registration Office, any NPP, or any Police Division HQ. As these reporting centres are many and easily accessible, it will be convenient for the IC holder to comply with all his legal obligations to report his change of residential address. The level of service to the public will therefore be improved significantly.

Sir, I beg to move.

Question proposed.

Mr Chiam See Tong: Mr Speaker, Sir, I think all Singaporeans welcome this One-Stop Change of Address Reporting System, otherwise known as OSCARS. This name given is very appropriate, especially to film lovers. Oscars are given every year, I think, to the best film and the best performance in the film industry. And also I think fish lovers would welcome this name - "OSCARS". I believe it is the name of a fancy fish that is very popular among aquarium keepers.

I think every Singaporean would welcome this change. Those who attend court will know that many summonses are issued. I do not know so much about pharmacists, but I know for sure that business people and income taxpayers who have not paid their income tax on time would welcome this change, because the very common reason given is that the Government notices never reach their addresses. So with this change, it is very convenient as they do not have to go to so many other departments to change their addresses. In the first instance, if they do not receive one notice, they are informed in other areas in which they are involved. So I think Singaporeans will definitely welcome this change. The only comment I can make is why the Government has taken so long in implementing this system when computerisation is always a priority in the Government's programme.

Of course, we are awaiting for the other link-up and two areas which quickly come to my mind are motorcar registration, ie, the registration of owners of motorcars, and in regard to the driving licence. I think these are the areas in which many Singaporeans have been subject to court action and, in fact, not long ago we heard that many of the motorists, something like 44,000, have not paid up their fines for parking offences. One of the reasons why they were called to court is that maybe the notices have been sent to the wrong address. They have not reported the change of address to the relevant authority in regard to parking offences. So I can conclude that we really welcome OSCARS.

Mr Wong Kan Seng: Sir, I take it that Mr Chiam is complimenting the NRD for introducing the system. I do not think it is a question of lateness. It is a question of getting the act together and making sure that enough agencies participate before the system can be implemented.

As regards his point about the people who hold driving licences and motorcar registration, if they have their residential address as stated in their identity cards, and if they change it, then of course it would straightaway be reflected in the various records to be kept by the subscribing agencies. For businesses, if the business is registered as a business address, that is a separate matter. This Bill will include people who use their residential address for business, or who use their residential address in the registration of the business name. The agencies will be notified. I just want to make that point very clear.

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 Wong Kan Seng].

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