SINGAPORE - The Ministry of Finance is conducting a public consultation on changes to the Income Tax Act from March 1 to 16.

It is asking for public feedback on the draft Bill, for an amendment to allow Singapore to implement what is known as the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), starting Jan 1 next year.

The ministry said in a statement: "This is necessary before Singapore can carry out her international commitment to commence automatic exchange of financial account information under the CRS in 2018."

The CRS is an internationally agreed standard for the automatic exchange of information, endorsed by OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), and the and Global Forum for Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes.

More than 90 jurisdictions, including major financial centres such as Dubai, Hong Kong, Luxembourg and Switzerland, have endorsed the CRS and will commence the automatic exchange in 2017 or 2018.