More GST relief for travellers from Sunday
International visitors and Singapore residents returning from overseas will enjoy more goods and services tax (GST) relief from Sunday.
Those who spend 48 hours and more abroad will get GST relief valued at up to $600 for goods, double the current $300.
If they are away from Singapore for fewer than 48 hours, they will get GST relief valued at up to $150 for goods.
Currently, the GST relief depends on a traveller's age, in addition to the time he spends outside Singapore. The age criterion will be removed from Sunday, said Singapore Customs in a statement yesterday.
The statement said: "The GST relief has been revised upwards to keep pace with rising expenditures. The revision also brings relief amounts closer to international norms."
The new relief applies to all travellers including children except pass and permit holders, and crew members.
All goods brought into the country for local use or consumption are subject to 7 per cent GST.
To minimise the inconvenience to travellers bringing in small amounts of goods for personal use or consumption, they are granted GST relief based on the value of the goods.
~News courtesy of Omy~
Friday 30 March 2012
Friday 23 March 2012
Beware of phone calls offering zoo tickets
Beware of phone calls offering zoo tickets
If you receive a phone call telling you that you have won free admission to the Singapore Zoo, do not celebrate.
It is likely to be a scam to steal personal details like your name and identity-card (IC) number.
A handful of people turned up at the zoo earlier this month only to find out that the tickets they had "won" did not exist.
They also learnt that the person who called them did not work for the zoo.
In a statement issued to my paper, Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS), which runs the zoo, confirmed that it has uncovered a recent spate of phone scams.
The victims were requested to reveal their IC numbers over the phone in exchange for "free zoo tickets", WRS said in the statement.
Ms Isabel Cheng, director of marketing and communications at WRS, advised members of the public to make a police report if they receive such calls.
The scam came to light after the Singapore Zoo received several inquiries, in person and over the phone, about the free tickets.
~News courtesy of Omy~
If you receive a phone call telling you that you have won free admission to the Singapore Zoo, do not celebrate.
It is likely to be a scam to steal personal details like your name and identity-card (IC) number.
A handful of people turned up at the zoo earlier this month only to find out that the tickets they had "won" did not exist.
They also learnt that the person who called them did not work for the zoo.
In a statement issued to my paper, Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS), which runs the zoo, confirmed that it has uncovered a recent spate of phone scams.
The victims were requested to reveal their IC numbers over the phone in exchange for "free zoo tickets", WRS said in the statement.
Ms Isabel Cheng, director of marketing and communications at WRS, advised members of the public to make a police report if they receive such calls.
The scam came to light after the Singapore Zoo received several inquiries, in person and over the phone, about the free tickets.
~News courtesy of Omy~
Monday 19 March 2012
Andy Warhol art exhibition opens in S'pore
Andy Warhol art exhibition opens in S'pore
It's been 25 years since Andy Warhol's death but his creations continue to make an impact on the global art scene.
And now, there's good news for Andy Warhol fans as more than 260 works of the Pop Art icon are in town at the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands.
Titled 'Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal', the exhibition is the largest collection ever to be shown in Singapore.
For Warhol, art could come in many forms.
He showed the world how different production methods can transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.
ArtScience Museum senior project manager Lise MacDonald said: "He created a real bomb in the art world. He was an artist thinking ahead of any other people. He was definitely not the type of artist you could classify as conventional."
His works blurred the boundaries between art and advertisement, and crossed the lines between the bizarre and the beautiful.
And one example is the Cow Wallpaper which uses a cow motif for a wallpaper design.
"Precisely, it's strange, right?" said MacDonald. "The colours are very bold and they're complementary colours put together so it has a visual impact and effect that are very striking. And it's the idea of the repetition of the pattern... that's very frequent in his work. Why would one not look at a cow? Why would one not look at a Campbell's soup can?"
MacDonald was referring to Warhol's 1962 masterpiece '32 Campbell's Soup Cans' which was produced by a printmaking method known as semi-mechanized silkscreen process.
But unlike Warhol's silkscreen prints of canned soup, there will be other collections that are hand painted in the exhibition.
The works of three Southeast Asian artists - Jahan Loh from Singapore, Ibrahim Hussein from Malaysia and Jirapat Tatsanasomboom from Thailand - are also showcased as part of the exhibition.
Each one is a distinctive take on the influence of Andy Warhol and how he has changed the way we look at everything - including traditional art.
Singaporean visual artist Jahan Loh lived overseas in Taipei for eight years and what he missed the most was luncheon meat.
Loh said: "I chose a very common reference point which is canned food. It's clearly a tongue in cheek poke at Andy Warhol's Campbell's soup, but contextualised within our Singaporean, Asian context. Certain similarities are deliberate, but other things are very different if you look carefully. I think maybe Andy Warhol would have painted luncheon meat if he'd tasted it."
The exhibition runs till August 12, 2012 in Singapore and will head to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and finally to Tokyo in 2014.
~News courtesy of Channel Newsasia~
It's been 25 years since Andy Warhol's death but his creations continue to make an impact on the global art scene.
And now, there's good news for Andy Warhol fans as more than 260 works of the Pop Art icon are in town at the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands.
Titled 'Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal', the exhibition is the largest collection ever to be shown in Singapore.
For Warhol, art could come in many forms.
He showed the world how different production methods can transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.
ArtScience Museum senior project manager Lise MacDonald said: "He created a real bomb in the art world. He was an artist thinking ahead of any other people. He was definitely not the type of artist you could classify as conventional."
His works blurred the boundaries between art and advertisement, and crossed the lines between the bizarre and the beautiful.
And one example is the Cow Wallpaper which uses a cow motif for a wallpaper design.
"Precisely, it's strange, right?" said MacDonald. "The colours are very bold and they're complementary colours put together so it has a visual impact and effect that are very striking. And it's the idea of the repetition of the pattern... that's very frequent in his work. Why would one not look at a cow? Why would one not look at a Campbell's soup can?"
MacDonald was referring to Warhol's 1962 masterpiece '32 Campbell's Soup Cans' which was produced by a printmaking method known as semi-mechanized silkscreen process.
But unlike Warhol's silkscreen prints of canned soup, there will be other collections that are hand painted in the exhibition.
The works of three Southeast Asian artists - Jahan Loh from Singapore, Ibrahim Hussein from Malaysia and Jirapat Tatsanasomboom from Thailand - are also showcased as part of the exhibition.
Each one is a distinctive take on the influence of Andy Warhol and how he has changed the way we look at everything - including traditional art.
Singaporean visual artist Jahan Loh lived overseas in Taipei for eight years and what he missed the most was luncheon meat.
Loh said: "I chose a very common reference point which is canned food. It's clearly a tongue in cheek poke at Andy Warhol's Campbell's soup, but contextualised within our Singaporean, Asian context. Certain similarities are deliberate, but other things are very different if you look carefully. I think maybe Andy Warhol would have painted luncheon meat if he'd tasted it."
The exhibition runs till August 12, 2012 in Singapore and will head to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and finally to Tokyo in 2014.
~News courtesy of Channel Newsasia~
Monday 5 March 2012
Cabbies continue illegal touting business
Cabbies continue illegal touting business
Taxi touts continue to plague the area outside Orchard Towers in Orchard Road.
Reporters checked out the area recently and found touts still harassing Caucasians to take their taxis.
Such a phenomenon has been reported multiple times in the media and appears to continue unabated.
More than ten taxis were observed to be parked along the road outside Orchard Towers on Saturday evening (3 Mar).
The taxis would put up 'Busy' or 'On Call' signs to turn away ordinary customers, while the cabbies approach foreigners, mainly Caucasians, to take their cabs.
In these transactions, the cabbies do not use the fare meter and instead quote prices to their customers.
These charges are often double the normal charge on the fare meter.
Reporters overheard a tourist asking to go to the Rochor Road area at about 11pm.
The tourist was quoted a flat fee of $20, for a trip that is estimated to take around six minutes and will normally cost less than $10 on the fare meter.
The taxis involved in touting are known to move off when police patrols arrive, but the cabbies quickly return to resume business after the police leave.
Such touting is not allowed and cabbies caught will be penalised with 12 demerit points and fined $500.
If cabbies attempt to overcharge by a difference of more than $20, they can receive 21 demerit points and have their taxi licence suspended.
~News courtesy of Omy~
Taxi touts continue to plague the area outside Orchard Towers in Orchard Road.
Reporters checked out the area recently and found touts still harassing Caucasians to take their taxis.
Such a phenomenon has been reported multiple times in the media and appears to continue unabated.
More than ten taxis were observed to be parked along the road outside Orchard Towers on Saturday evening (3 Mar).
The taxis would put up 'Busy' or 'On Call' signs to turn away ordinary customers, while the cabbies approach foreigners, mainly Caucasians, to take their cabs.
In these transactions, the cabbies do not use the fare meter and instead quote prices to their customers.
These charges are often double the normal charge on the fare meter.
Reporters overheard a tourist asking to go to the Rochor Road area at about 11pm.
The tourist was quoted a flat fee of $20, for a trip that is estimated to take around six minutes and will normally cost less than $10 on the fare meter.
The taxis involved in touting are known to move off when police patrols arrive, but the cabbies quickly return to resume business after the police leave.
Such touting is not allowed and cabbies caught will be penalised with 12 demerit points and fined $500.
If cabbies attempt to overcharge by a difference of more than $20, they can receive 21 demerit points and have their taxi licence suspended.
~News courtesy of Omy~
Friday 2 March 2012
New Terminal 4 to replace Budget Terminal
New Changi Terminal 4 to replace Budget Terminal
SINGAPORE: Singapore's Budget Terminal will be closed on September 25 and demolished to make way for the construction of a new Terminal 4 at Changi Airport.
Changi Airport Group (CAG) gave this confirmation after Channel NewsAsia first broke news of the impending closure on Wednesday.
In a statement, CAG said construction of Terminal 4 will begin in 2013 and is expected to be ready by 2017.
The new terminal will be a larger passenger building, with the capacity to handle 16 million passengers per annum.
It will be designed to enable efficient passenger processing and quick turnaround of aircraft, and will not have aerobridges.
Unlike the present Budget Terminal, Terminal 4 will also have a wide choice of retail and food and beverage offerings, as well as passenger amenities that will better serve the needs of travellers.
To facilitate the construction of Terminal 4, airlines currently operating in the Budget Terminal will move their operations to Terminal 2 and will start operations there from September 25 at 6am.
The affected airlines are Berjaya Air, Cebu Pacific, Firefly, South East Asian Airlines and Tiger Airways.
CAG said it has had discussions with the airlines operating at the Budget Terminal since late last year regarding the terminal's closure, and it will work with the respective airlines to ensure a smooth transition of their operations, and minimise inconvenience to passengers as far as possible.
It said more details on each airline's operations at Terminal 2 will be provided nearer the effective date.
CAG said the new terminal will help to sustain the long-term growth of Changi Airport.
It said the existing Budget Terminal handled more than 4.6 million passenger movements last year.
And Changi Airport, with a total capacity of more than 70 million passengers per annum, still has room to accommodate air traffic growth.
CAG said it believes in planning ahead to ensure there is capacity to handle further increase in traffic demand.
Over the past decade, passenger traffic at Changi Airport has increased at a compounded annual growth rate of 5.2 percent. In 2011, Changi handled a total of 46.5 million passenger movements, a year-on-year increase of 10.7 percent.
Singapore-based carriers - Singapore Airlines, SilkAir, Tiger Airways, Jetstar Asia and Scoot - have ordered new aircraft and foreign carriers have also expressed the desire to grow their air links with Singapore.
~News courtesy of Channel Newsasia~
SINGAPORE: Singapore's Budget Terminal will be closed on September 25 and demolished to make way for the construction of a new Terminal 4 at Changi Airport.Changi Airport Group (CAG) gave this confirmation after Channel NewsAsia first broke news of the impending closure on Wednesday.
In a statement, CAG said construction of Terminal 4 will begin in 2013 and is expected to be ready by 2017.
The new terminal will be a larger passenger building, with the capacity to handle 16 million passengers per annum.
It will be designed to enable efficient passenger processing and quick turnaround of aircraft, and will not have aerobridges.
Unlike the present Budget Terminal, Terminal 4 will also have a wide choice of retail and food and beverage offerings, as well as passenger amenities that will better serve the needs of travellers.
To facilitate the construction of Terminal 4, airlines currently operating in the Budget Terminal will move their operations to Terminal 2 and will start operations there from September 25 at 6am.
The affected airlines are Berjaya Air, Cebu Pacific, Firefly, South East Asian Airlines and Tiger Airways.
CAG said it has had discussions with the airlines operating at the Budget Terminal since late last year regarding the terminal's closure, and it will work with the respective airlines to ensure a smooth transition of their operations, and minimise inconvenience to passengers as far as possible.
It said more details on each airline's operations at Terminal 2 will be provided nearer the effective date.
CAG said the new terminal will help to sustain the long-term growth of Changi Airport.
It said the existing Budget Terminal handled more than 4.6 million passenger movements last year.
And Changi Airport, with a total capacity of more than 70 million passengers per annum, still has room to accommodate air traffic growth.
CAG said it believes in planning ahead to ensure there is capacity to handle further increase in traffic demand.
Over the past decade, passenger traffic at Changi Airport has increased at a compounded annual growth rate of 5.2 percent. In 2011, Changi handled a total of 46.5 million passenger movements, a year-on-year increase of 10.7 percent.
Singapore-based carriers - Singapore Airlines, SilkAir, Tiger Airways, Jetstar Asia and Scoot - have ordered new aircraft and foreign carriers have also expressed the desire to grow their air links with Singapore.
~News courtesy of Channel Newsasia~
Thursday 1 March 2012
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