Indranee Rajah on ACRA (Registry and Regulatory Enhancements) Bill

Changes were proposed in Parliament on Tuesday (Jul 2) to better protect data held by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), enhance the regulatory framework for entities under its purview, and facilitate digital communications between the Government and businesses. For example, individuals associated with business entities will have to file a contact address with ACRA, alongside a residential address. This must be a physical address at which the individual can be contacted by post, and it - rather than the residential address - will be made publicly available. The aim is to prevent residential addresses from being exploited for malicious purposes such as harassment or loan shark activities. To enhance ACRA’s regulatory oversight and streamline processes, it would be allowed to obtain and use information from prescribed public agencies to maintain and update its registers more efficiently and reduce manual entry by users. Finally, ACRA would be empowered to collect information such as email addresses and mobile numbers so that it can send secure digital communications to businesses through its business registration and filing portal called BizFile. Currently, documents are sent in hard copy but in future, this would only be done in connection with Court proceedings. The changes were outlined by Second Minister for Finance Indranee Rajah in Parliament on Tuesday (Jul 2).