Appointment of New Commissioner of Inland Revenue and Accountant-General

     The Prime Minister and Minister for Finance has appointed Mr Ow Fook Chuen as the next Commissioner of Inland Revenue and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS). Mr Ow is currently the Accountant-General and Chief of Government Finance. Mr Ow will take over from the incumbent Commissioner and CEO, Mr Ng Wai Choong, when Mr Ng retires from the civil service on 7 February 2025. Mr Ng will continue to contribute to the Singapore Public Service in a new capacity, to be announced in due course. 

2   Mdm Esther Wee Yu, currently the Deputy Accountant-General (People & Transformation) and Deputy Chief of Government Finance at the Accountant-General’s Department (AGD), will succeed Mr Ow as Accountant-General with effect from 7 February 2025.

3   Mr Ow will also be appointed as a member of the IRAS Board, and Mdm Wee as a member of the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority Board, with effect from 7 February 2025.

Contributions of Mr Ng Wai Choong

4   Mr Ng has served as the Commissioner and CEO of IRAS since 1 February 2018. During his term, he has made significant contributions in ensuring the robustness and resilience of the Singapore tax system and helped position IRAS as a leading tax authority globally.  

5   Under his leadership, IRAS fostered international tax co-operation and provided thought leadership in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Forum on Tax Administration. IRAS undertook proactive reviews of policies such as the introduction of the Income Inclusion Rule and Domestic Top-up Tax under Pillar Two of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting 2.0 initiative. It also successfully implemented various tax policy changes, including the rate changes for the major tax types and the imposition of Goods and Services Tax for imported services and small value goods.  

6   Mr Ng oversaw initiatives to improve taxpayers’ experience, including the digitalisation of taxpayer notices, enhancements to myTaxPortal, as well as the expansion of No Filing Service to more taxpayers, such as self-employed persons like taxi/private hire car drivers and delivery workers. Businesses also benefitted from the introduction of Form C-S(Lite) and the extension of 2-line statements to small partnerships that reduced their compliance burden. IRAS actively promoted digital solutions like Seamless Filing from Software, One-Stop Payroll software and InvoiceNow as well, making tax filing even more seamless for businesses.

7   During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Ng led IRAS in taking on an additional role as the Centre of Excellence for disbursing national grants to enterprises. IRAS administered various grant schemes to support businesses and workers, including the Jobs Support Scheme, Wage Credit Scheme, and the Rental Support Scheme.  

Contributions of Mr Ow Fook Chuen

8   Mr Ow has served as the Accountant-General since 23 March 2015. During his term, he has made significant contributions in performing his statutory duties and in transforming the whole-of government finance and internal audit functions. 

9   Mr Ow supported the President in the protection of past reserves, preparing the Government Financial Statements and ensuring the integrity of the Government financial and accounting systems. He combined a deep knowledge of accounting, Constitutional and legal requirements, and policy acumen in rendering his advice on reserves matters. These included accounting issues related to the unprecedented draw on Past Reserves to fight COVID-19. 

10   Mr Ow spearheaded Finance Transformation efforts, and accelerated workforce reforms for the Public Sector Finance and Internal Audit community to develop agility, deep expertise, and talent bench strength. Under his watch, a systematic, holistic, and competency-based approach was taken to professionalise and grow the capability of close to 4,000 public sector finance officers. 

11   Brief write-ups of the new and outgoing Commissioners and new Accountant-General are attached at Annex A.

12   The Ministry of Finance, IRAS and AGD would like to express our deep appreciation to both Mr Ng and Mr Ow for their dedication and invaluable contributions to IRAS and AGD.