Employers who do not pay, underpay or are late in making contributions to their workers' Central Provident Fund (CPF) accounts could be jailed or face stiffer fines, or both, under a new Bill introduced in Parliament on Monday.

First-time offenders may be jailed for up to six months under the Central Provident Fund (Amendment) Bill. The maximum fine for this group is doubled from $2,500 to $5,000 for each conviction, with a minimum fine of $1,000.

Repeat offenders could be jailed for up to 12 months. There is no change to the maximum fine of $10,000, but there will be a minimum fine of $2,000.

These tough measures follow the CPF Board's announcement in May this year that it recovered a staggering $293 million last year in arrears from errant companies - mostly small and medium enterprises in cleaning, security and food and beverage sectors - for more than 200,000 workers last year.