Thai Parliament reps look to NUS Law’s Associate Professor Stephen Phua for fiscal expertise

Thai parliamentarians visited NUS Law on 13 June to learn more about Singapore’s fiscal policies from a member of our faculty, Associate Professor Stephen Phua, who is a tax law expert that has served for more than a decade on each of the three tax tribunals in Singapore—the Income Tax Board of Review, the Goods and Services Tax Board of Review and the Valuation Review Board.

They held a robust discussion on the taxation frameworks of casinos, redistribution and social controls in the light of their plans to debate on a Bill to construct an entertainment complex comprising MICE, resort and a casino, in the Parliament of Thailand.

Besides seeking Associate Professor Phua’s expertise on addressing the impact that the two integrated resorts in Singapore have had on tourism, job creation and revenue collection, the 10 Parliament members—part of a 31-strong delegation led by Mr Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, Member of Parliament, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Social Welfare of the House of Representatives—were also interested in possible ways to provide financial support to low-income groups and solutions to taxing the informal economy.

They were also intrigued by Singapore’s unique Workfare model in providing support without compromising the nation’s core value of self-reliance, to which Associate Professor Phua shared details of Singapore’s support structures in housing, healthcare, education, skills upgrading and retirement.

This session came on the back of their meeting in September 2024, when Associate Professor Phua was invited to present a paper on the Singapore tax system, specifically on the SG50 and SG100 policies, to the Fiscal Policy Office of the Ministry of Finance of Thailand in Bangkok. His presentation comprehensively addressed the relationship between taxation, economic growth and redistribution, tracing the role and impact of the SG50 taxation policy on the economic development of Singapore since Independence.

He spoke at length on how fiscal diversity and austerity in public spending enabled the country to maintain healthy fiscal positions throughout those 50 years; budget surpluses were prudently squirrelled away to fund investments and inter-generational transfers, as well as support the needs of the vulnerable.

Associate Professor Phua’s expertise in fiscal reforms has also made an impact in India. In 2009, he presented a paper in New Delhi on tax gaps and solutions to mitigate tax leakage in informal economies. He recommended the need for tax amnesty to reduce the size of the underground cash economy (estimated to be as large as 80% of the economy), as well as a mobile digital payment solutions to serve the rural unbanked sectors. Today, India like many other countries boasts the presence of leading digital payment gateways.

About Associate Professor Stephen Phua

Stephen Phua teaches Income Tax, Goods and Services Tax, Corporate Taxation, International Tax and Business & Finance for Lawyers courses at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, where he used to serve as a Tax Director at the EW Barker Centre for Law and Business.

He was a visiting scholar/professor to several leading universities in Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Switzerland and the US. Currently, he is a tax consultant at Allen & Gledhill LLP. He regularly provides expert evidence on Singapore tax laws in arbitration and litigation proceedings in Singapore and elsewhere.

He has delivered papers in many international conferences and published articles in refereed journals and chapters in books. He is the editor of two books: Recent Developments in Financial Regulation and Capital Markets (2003) and Excise Taxation in Asia (2007).