Damage to property of Authority
Open ↗92.—(1) If any person wilfully removes, destroys or damages any property belonging to or in the custody or possession of the Authority or hinders or prevents such property from being used or hinders or prevents such property from being used or operated in the manner in which it is intended to be used or operated, the person shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 and must make good any loss, destruction or damage suffered by the Authority, including the expenses of any inspection or survey carried out by the Authority to ascertain such loss, destruction or damage.
(2) Any person may apprehend any other person if the other person within his or her view commits an offence against this section and must on such apprehension, without unreasonable delay, hand the person apprehended over to a police officer.
Unlawful operation of marine or port services or facilities
Open ↗93. Any person who establishes, installs, maintains, provides or operates any marine service or facility or any port service or facility without a public licence shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or to both and, in the case of a continuing offence, to a further fine not exceeding $1,000 for every day or part of a day during which the offence continues after conviction.
Evasion of dues
Open ↗94.—(1) Any owner, agent or master of any vessel who, by any means, evades or attempts to evade any port dues, goods dues or pilotage dues payable under this Act shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both, and shall in addition be liable to pay to the Authority as penalty double the amount of the dues the owner, agent or master evaded or attempted to evade.
(2) The tender to or acceptance by the Authority or any of its officers of any dues, the payment of which has been previously evaded does not release or discharge any person from any liability for any damages or penalty consequent upon such evasion.
Penalty for giving false information as to draught of vessel, etc.
Open ↗95.—(1) Any owner, agent or master of a vessel entering or leaving, or within, the port or the approaches to the port who makes any negligent misstatement or gives false information of the type of vessel, its draught, length, beam or height to the Authority shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $20,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both.
(2) In this section, “height of vessel” is the height of the vessel measured vertically from the waterline of the vessel to the highest point of the vessel including its cargo, structure or equipment on board.
Offences in connection with safety of vessels, etc.
Open ↗96. Any person who —(a)
wilfully and without lawful excuse loosens or removes, from its moorings or from its fastenings alongside any wharf or dock, any vessel in the port without leave or authority from the master or owner of the vessel or person in charge of the wharf or dock;
(b)
wilfully and without lawful excuse lifts, injures, makes a vessel fast to, loosens or sets adrift any moorings, buoys, beacons or sea or land marks;
(c)
[Deleted by Act 3 of 2021 wef 01/07/2025]
(d)
graves, breams or smokes any vessel in the port, or boils or heats any pitch, tar, resin, dammar, turpentine oil or other such combustible matter on board any vessel within the port, at any time or within any limits at or within which such act is prohibited by any order of the Minister, or contrary to the orders or directions of the Port Master or the master of the vessel;
(e)
does or omits any act on board any vessel in the port which has caused or may cause fire on board the vessel; or
(f)
uses a vessel or permits a vessel to be used in the port —(i)
when the vessel is in such a state that by reason of the defective condition of its hull, equipment or machinery, or by reason of undermanning or otherwise, the life of any person is likely to be endangered;
(ii)
when the vessel is so loaded with goods or passengers or with both goods and passengers as to —(A)
exceed the number of passengers allowed by the vessel’s safety certificate to be carried or received on the vessel; and
(B)
submerge the appropriate subdivision load line on each side of the vessel when the vessel has no list, that is to say, the subdivision load line appropriate to the space for the time being allotted to passengers on the vessel is lower than the load line indicating the maximum depth to which the vessel is for the time being entitled under any written law to be loaded when the vessel has no list;
(iii)
in contravention of the regulations thus endangering the life of any person,
shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both.
Penalty for obstructing Authority in performance of duties
Open ↗97. Any person who at any time hinders or obstructs the Authority or any of its employees, agents or contractors in the performance and execution of their duty or of anything which they are respectively empowered or required to do so by virtue or in consequence of this Act, or removes any mark set up for the purpose of indicating any level or direction necessary to the execution of works authorised by this Act, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both.[40/2017]
Power to examine and secure attendance
Open ↗97A.—(1) Any duly authorised officer of the Authority may do all or any of the following for the purposes of investigating into any matter under this Act:(a)
issue a written order requiring anyone within the limits of Singapore, who appears to be acquainted with any of the facts and circumstances of the matter, to attend before any duly authorised officer of the Authority;
(b)
examine orally any person who appears to be acquainted with the facts and circumstances of the matter, and require that person to answer questions relating to the matter and posed by any duly authorised officer of the Authority, whether or not —(i)
that person or any other person is charged with an offence in connection with the matter; and
(ii)
that person is to be called as a witness in any inquiry, trial or other proceeding in connection with the matter;
(c)
require any person to provide to any duly authorised officer of the Authority any information or document in the possession of that person in connection with the matter;
(d)
without payment, inspect, keep, copy or take extracts from any document mentioned in paragraph (c).[40/2017]
(2) A person examined under subsection (1)(b) is bound to state truly what the person knows of the facts and circumstances concerning the matter in question, except that the person need not say anything that might expose the person to a criminal charge, penalty or forfeiture.[40/2017]
(3) A statement made by any person examined under this section must —(a)
be reduced to writing;
(b)
be read over to the person;
(c)
if the person does not understand English, be interpreted to the person in a language that the person understands; and
(d)
after correction, if necessary, be signed by the person.[40/2017]
(4) If any person fails to attend as required by an order issued under subsection (1)(a), any duly authorised officer of the Authority may report such failure to the Magistrate who may then, in the Magistrate’s discretion, issue a warrant ordering the person to attend.[40/2017]
(5) Any person who —(a)
intentionally alters, suppresses or destroys any document that the person is required to provide under subsection (1); or
(b)
in providing any information required of the person under subsection (1), makes any statement that the person knows to be false in any material particular,
shall be guilty of an offence.
[40/2017]
(6) The Chief Executive may authorise an appointed officer to exercise any of the powers of a duly authorised officer of the Authority under this section for the purposes of investigating any matter under regulations made under section 89C in which case, a reference to a duly authorised officer of the Authority is to be read as a reference to the appointed officer.[40/2017]
Preservation of secrecy
Open ↗98.—(1) A person (P) who is or has been a member, officer, employee, adviser or agent of the Authority or a member of a committee of the Authority must not, except for the purpose of the performance of P’s duties or the exercise of P’s functions or when lawfully required to do so by any court or where required or allowed by the provisions of any written law, disclose any information relating to the affairs of the Authority or of any other person which has been obtained by P in the performance of P’s duties or the exercise of P’s functions.[5/2018]
(2) Any person who contravenes subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $2,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both.
General penalties
Open ↗99. Any person guilty of an offence under this Act or the regulations for which no penalty is expressly provided shall, in addition to the forfeiture of any article seized, be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both.
Offences by bodies of persons
Open ↗100. Where an offence under this Act or the regulations has been committed by a company, firm, society or other body of persons, any person who at the time of the commission of the offence was a director, manager, secretary or other similar officer or a partner of the company, firm, society or other body of persons or was purporting to act in such capacity shall be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly unless the person proves that the offence was committed without his or her consent, connivance or privity and that the person exercised all such diligence to prevent the commission of the offence as he or she ought to have exercised, having regard to the nature of his or her functions in that capacity and to all the circumstances.
Jurisdiction of courts
Open ↗101. A Magistrate’s Court or a District Court has jurisdiction to hear and determine all offences under this Act or the regulations and, despite anything to the contrary in the Criminal Procedure Code 2010, has power to impose the full penalty or punishment in respect of any offence under this Act or the regulations.
Composition of offences
Open ↗102.—(1) Any police officer not below the rank of sergeant authorised by name in that behalf by the Minister, or any employee or officer of the Authority authorised in that behalf by the Chief Executive, may compound any offence under this Act or the regulations made under this Act that is prescribed as a compoundable offence by collecting from the person reasonably suspected of having committed the offence a sum not exceeding the lower of the following:(a)
one half of the amount of the maximum fine that is prescribed for the offence;
(b)
$2,000.[40/2017]
(2) Without limiting subsection (1), any appointed officer authorised in that behalf by the Chief Executive may exercise the power under subsection (1) in relation to any offence under the regulations made under section 89C that is prescribed as a compoundable offence.[40/2017]
(3) On payment of such sum of money under subsection (1) or (2), no further proceedings are to be taken against that person in respect of the offence.[40/2017]
(4) The Authority may, with the approval of the Minister, make regulations under section 119 prescribing the offences that may be compounded.[40/2017]
Fines to be paid into Consolidated Fund
Open ↗103. All fines imposed for any offence under this Act or the regulations and all sums collected under section 102 must be paid into the Consolidated Fund.[40/2017]
[Act 17 of 2025 wef 01/02/2026]
Presumption of jurisdiction
Open ↗104. If, in any legal proceedings under this Act or the regulations, a question arises as to whether or not any vessel or person is within the provisions of this Act or the regulations or some part thereof, the vessel or person is taken to be within those provisions unless the contrary is proved.
Service of documents
Open ↗105.—(1) Unless otherwise expressly provided in this Act, any notice, order or document required or authorised by this Act or the regulations to be given or served on any person, and any summons issued by a court in connection with any offence under this Act or the regulations, may be served on the person concerned —(a)
by delivering it to the person or to an adult member or employee of the person’s family at his or her last known place of residence;
(b)
by leaving it at his or her usual or last known place of residence or business in a cover addressed to him or her;
(c)
by affixing it to a conspicuous part of his or her last known place of residence;
(d)
by sending it by registered post addressed to the person at his or her usual or last known place of residence or business; or
(e)
where the person is a body corporate —(i)
by delivering it to the secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate at its registered or principal office; or
(ii)
by sending it by registered post addressed to the body corporate at its registered or principal office.
(2) Any notice, order, document or summons sent by registered post to any person in accordance with subsection (1) is deemed to be duly served on the person to whom the letter is addressed at the time when the letter would, in the ordinary course of post, be delivered and in proving service of the same it is sufficient to prove that the envelope containing the notice, order, document or summons was properly addressed, stamped and posted by registered post.
Saving of prosecutions under other laws
Open ↗106. Nothing in this Act prevents any person from being prosecuted under any other written law for any act or omission which constitutes an offence under this Act or the regulations, or from being liable under that other written law to any punishment or penalty higher or other than that provided by this Act or the regulations, but no person is to be punished twice for the same offence.
Source: Singapore Statutes Online (Attorney-General's Chambers), © Government of Singapore.
