small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) could do with formal guidelines on corporate gifting to avoid crossing ethical or legal lines, industry observers told The Business Times.

The need for such guidelines has been recently underscored by the charges recently brought against former transport minister S Iswaran, they noted.

On Jan 18, Iswaran pleaded not guilty to two counts of corruption, 24 counts of obtaining items from someone with whom he had business dealings as a public servant, and one of obstructing the course of justice. He had allegedly received items worth over S$384,000 from property tycoon Ong Beng Seng.