Singapore’s ambassador to the US rebutted a New York Times opinion piece by freelance journalist Kirsten Han, saying she portrayed Singapore as an “authoritarian paradise, where critics of the government are squelched and drug traffickers are hanged”. Mr Ashok Kumar Mirpuri said that he could not recognise the country Ms Han described in her March 29 article, titled “What Trump is Learning from Singapore – and Vice Versa”. Ms Han wrote that US President Donald Trump and the Singapore Government are seemingly drawing lessons from each other on two issues. The first was Mr Trump’s reported interest in learning more about Singapore’s approach to drug trafficking, which includes the death penalty. The second was a Singapore parliamentary committee set up to mull over ways to tackle deliberate online falsehoods, or “fake news”, which she said hint at “new restrictions on the media”.

Individual taxpayers, particularly employees, could enjoy the convenience of having their annual tax returns (SPT) filled out by the tax office in the near future, as the tax authority continues to improve its services as part of sweeping tax reform. Under the new system, taxpayers can approve and sign SPTs filled out by the tax authority or revise them accordingly. Tax collection from employees’ income tax (PPh21) stood at Rp30.39tr in the 1Q18, a 15.73% yoy growth. The figure reversed a 0.12 yoy contraction in 2017.