There will be stiffer financial penalties for those who fund terrorists or terrorism activities, after Parliament passed a bill on Monday to suppress the financing of such activities.

The current penalty for terrorism financing offences is a fine not exceeding $100,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years, or both.

Under the newly-passed Terrorism (Suppression of Financing) (Amendment) bill, the fine amount will be raised to a maximum of $500,000 for individuals and $1 million for entities.

The Bill will also make it an offence for a person to disclose information that could prejudice the investigations into terrorism financing offences, for example by tipping off another person about the probe.

Another clause in the Bill protects informer's identities during legal proceedings.

The law requires that those who have information about transactions relating to terrorist property or acts of terrorism financing to disclose it to the police.

Mr S. Iswaran, Second Minister for Home Affairs and Trade and Industry, and Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, said: "The proposed amendments will boost our fight against terrorism by strengthening our counter terrorism financing regime and supporting our terrorist rehabilitation efforts."