The Singapore government says it exchanges bank account information with Malaysia when dealing with money-laundering and serious crimes, but the agreements for such exchange in the area of taxation had yet to be updated to international standards.

NONE According to a parliamentary reply by Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam ( right ) on Monday, the country had made an offer to Malaysia to update the bilateral tax agreement to allow for such exchanges when dealing with taxation.

"We have also offered to Malaysia and Indonesia to update our tax agreements with the internationally agreed standard for exchange of information for tax purposes. The standard provides for the exchange of bank information.

"Once our tax agreements with Malaysia and Indonesia are updated with the standard, just as for our tax agreements with other countries, we can build further on our good working relations with Malaysia and Indonesia and enhance tax cooperation further," said Tharman, who is also Monetary Authority of Singapore chairperson.

The reply was directed to Singapore's Hougang MP Png Eng Huat - the man who won a ground-breaking by-election for opposition Workers' Party last year - who queried how many times Malaysia and Indonesia had approached Singapore for information on their citizens who operate bank accounts in the city state.

"It is generally not the international practice among authorities to reveal the number of legal assistance and information request from specific countries.

"However, I can assure members (of parliament) that we have helped fully on all requests from Malaysia and Indonesia in accordance with our current tax agreement," the reply read.

This assistance, Tharman said, includes information on details of transactions and companies.

Offshore companies

Singapore had been in the spotlight after a lawyer of Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud's cousins was caught on video explaining how to evade taxes by using bank accounts in Singapore.

The lawyer had explained that Singapore had a ‘China Wall' and it would not divulge any information about such transactions to Malaysia, allowing investors to escape Malaysia's tax authorities.

The video was part of a sting operation by international NGO Global Witness highlighting the Sarawak government's involvement in kickbacks for sales of state lands.

icij offshore companies secrecy for sale front Malaysiakini has also revealed last week that a number of top politicians, criminals and business tycoons have set up offshore companies in Singapore to, among others, hide their wealth.

The Singapore parliamentary reply explained that cooperation with Malaysia for tax and investigation purposes were governed by the mutual legal assistance under the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act, as well as bilateral tax agreements.

Under this law, Singapore would assist foreign authorities including exchange of bank account information when it comes to possible criminal activities.

singapore buildings "We provide mutual legal assistance for investigations into money-laundering as well as a wide range of serious crimes including corruption, bribery and fraud," the reply read.

As for bilateral tax agreements, it said Singapore actively exchanged information with Malaysia and Indonesia for tax investigation, but did not explain the nature of the information exchange.

However, it said once the bilateral tax agreement had been updated, it will include exchange of information for taxation purposes.

In addition, the existing anti-money laundering regime also requires Singapore financial institutions to be vigilant of suspected illicit monies and report any suspicious transactions, it said.

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