Wesco Engineering's ex-director sentenced to 2 weeks' jail, fine for assisting tax evasion

FORMER director of Wesco Engineering (WEPL) Kuah Pong Guan was on Friday sentenced to two weeks' jail and a penalty of S$354,045.33 for assisting the company to evade tax for two years by providing false information in WEPL's income tax returns.

During his term as the director of the company, which is involved in the fabrication of metal works, Kuah did not report a total of 81 cash sales made to its customers in WEPL's income tax returns for years of assessment (YA) 2009 and 2010, said the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS).

During the period, Kuah sold metal parts to customers on a cash basis without issuing any invoices, and did not report the earnings from these cash sales in WEPL's income tax returns.

He did so to pocket these earnings for gambling and to pay off his own creditors. By doing so, Kuah had also assisted WEPL to evade income tax by under-declaring WEPL's income earned, said IRAS.

IRAS said that it takes a serious view of non-compliance and tax evasion, noting severe penalties for those who wilfully evade tax.