s 16B Disclosure of foreign affiliations
16B.—(1) Subject to this Act, every arrangement or agreement to which a religious group is party during a reporting period, being an arrangement or agreement —(a) which is with a foreign principal; and (b) under which —(i) the religious group is accustomed, or under an obligation (whether formal or informal), to act in accordance with the directions, instructions or wishes of the foreign principal; or[Act 10 of 2025 wef 15/09/2026] (ii) the foreign principal is in a position to exercise, in any other way, total or substantial control over the religious group’s activities in Singapore, must be disclosed to a competent authority in accordance with this section. (2) Disclosure to a competent authority of every arrangement or agreement described in subsection (1) to which a religious group is party during a reporting period must be in a foreign affiliations report relating to the reporting period that —(a) is in the form required by the competent authority; (b) is given to the competent authority within the time delimited by subsection (3) and in the manner prescribed in regulations made under section 19 or, subject to those regulations, as approved by the competent authority; (c) contains the prescribed details or description of every such arrangement or agreement with a foreign principal during the reporting period, and the identity and other prescribed particulars of the foreign principal; (d) is signed by every responsible officer of the religious group; and (e) is accompanied by a declaration in subsection (4) made by every responsible officer of the religious group. (3) Subject to subsection (5), disclosure of every arrangement or agreement described in subsection (1) to which a religious group is party during a reporting period must be given to a competent authority no later than 1 April of the year following the year in which the reporting period ends. (4) The declaration required by subsection (2)(e) to accompany a foreign affiliations report of a religious group must contain a statement that, to the knowledge and belief of every responsible officer of the religious group, there is no other arrangement or agreement described in subsection (1) to which the religious group is party during the reporting period to which the foreign affiliations report relates. (5) Regulations made under section 19 may prescribe a longer period for the purposes of subsection (3). (6) In this section —“appointed day” means the date of commencement of section 13 of the Maintenance of Religious Harmony (Amendment) Act 2019; “arrangement” includes any formal or informal scheme, arrangement or understanding, and any trust whether express or implied; “initial reporting period” means —(a) the period starting on the appointed day and ending on 31 December of the same year that appointed day falls, unless paragraph (b) applies; or (b) the period starting on the day the religious group is incorporated or formed (being after the appointed day), and ending on 31 December of the same year the day the religious group is incorporated or formed falls; “reporting period” means the period of 12 months starting 1 January and ending 31 December in any year, and includes an initial reporting period.[Act 31 of 2019 wef 01/11/2022]