THE Ministry of Finance (MOF) has appointed Chia-Tern Huey Min as the new chief executive of the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra), effective Apr 22, 2024.

She takes over from Ong Khiaw Hong, who will retire from the public service when his term ends, MOF said on Wednesday (Nov 22).

Chia-Tern is currently the deputy commissioner of international, investigation and indirect taxes at the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras), where she has been for almost 36 years.

She played a key role in strengthening Singapore’s Goods and Services Tax regime, including rolling out taxes for imported low-value goods and taxing imported services through reverse charge and overseas vendor registration.

She also helped implement the Rental Support Scheme during the Covid-19 pandemic, which supported businesses in their rental costs, and boosted Iras’ capabilities and powers in fighting tax crimes.

Chia-Tern has also represented the Republic in international discussions on base erosion and profit shifting and chaired the peer review group of the Global Forum for Transparency and Information Exchange from 2016 to 2022, MOF said.

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Her experience spans senior positions in areas such as tax administration, tax policy, operations and regulations. She was seconded to MOF as chief tax policy officer from 2003 to 2005 and was also the chief executive of the Tax Academy of Singapore from 2007 to 2013.

Ong, meanwhile, has been Acra’s chief executive since April 2017. Under his leadership, the agency undertook digital and data-driven transformation and developed a new business registry and regulatory IT system.

He also contributed to efforts to enhance the effectiveness of regulatory regimes through several major legislative and operational changes in areas such as corporate governance, financial reporting and auditing, as well as combating money laundering and terrorism financing.

Before Acra, Ong was deputy commissioner of corporate and services at Iras, where he helped develop the tax authority’s corporate strategies and policies and roll out systems and business processes to support operations. His contributions resulted in better end-to-end service to taxpayers and enhanced Singapore’s tax competitiveness, MOF said.