5 NOV 2026 — Singapore's Parliament passed an urgent amendment to its haze law on 4 November, raising the maximum fine for a company behind cross-border fires tenfold to S$20 million. The higher fines will not apply to the fires behind this year's haze. Closing the debate, Singapore's environment minister, Grace Fu, said the amended offences and defences "will not apply retroactively", and that conduct before they take effect can be prosecuted only under the existing law, with its existing penalties.
The other half of the Transboundary Haze Pollution (Amendment) Bill can reach this year's fires. It adds powers that do not depend on a conviction: ordering a company to hire assessors, designating it so that others must stop doing business with it, and putting large firms on notice to keep their supply chains clean. In deciding on those, Fu said, "we can look at past conduct."
The old law and the new, side by side
The Bill amends the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act 2014, which Singapore Statutes Online still showed as the current text on 5 November. The changes below are taken from the two texts side by side.
| Provision | 2014 Act | Amendment Bill |
|---|---|---|
| When the main offence is committed | Haze pollution in Singapore at or about the time of the conduct, meaning the air quality index stays at a prescribed level for at least 24 hours | A fire abroad that causes haze pollution in Singapore, or a risk of it |
| Daily fine | Up to S$100,000 | Up to S$1 million |
| Extra daily fine for ignoring a preventive measures notice | Up to S$50,000 | Up to S$500,000 |
| Total cap on conviction | S$2 million | S$20 million |
| Defences | Natural disaster or act of war, or a third party acting without the company's knowledge, or reasonable measures to stop another party's conduct | Only the third-party defence, and the company must also prove it took reasonable measures to prevent that conduct and to fight the fire |
| Failing to answer an information notice | Fine up to S$5,000 | Fine up to S$50,000 |
| Civil penalty, without a criminal case | None | Up to S$10 million, with the Public Prosecutor's consent |
| Profit from the offence | Not addressed | Court must add it as a further penalty where it can be assessed |
Every fine moved by the same factor, so the ceiling arrives on the same day as before. At the top daily rate the cap is reached on day 20 of haze or risk, and within 14 days for a company that also ignored a preventive measures notice, by our arithmetic. Under the old law those figures produced S$2 million. Under the new one they produce S$20 million.
Fu said turnover-based fines "were considered" but rejected because turnover is hard to establish for every entity. In her opening speech she set the new cap beside the Online Criminal Harms Act, whose ceiling is S$10 million.
What reaches back, and what does not
The offence itself does not reach back. A company whose fires fed this year's haze faces the 2014 offence, the 2014 defences and the S$2 million cap, if it is ever charged.
Two other parts reach back. The new powers to designate, to put a company on notice and to order an assessment can take account of what a company did before the law changed, Fu said. Several procedural changes also apply to old offences. The Bill's new section 17A, which lets a court hear a case when an accused fails to appear after being served, covers an offence "committed before, on or after" the date it takes effect. Notices may also be served electronically or, in some cases, by publication in the media or on NEA's website, which Fu said would address the practical difficulty of serving foreign companies.
This matters for the four investigations still open from the 2015 haze. RECATOOLS reported in October that those cases had produced no fine in a decade. Fu said those cases "remain open although time has lapsed because of procedural issues". Three of the four entities have also been identified in the investigation into this year's haze, she said, and their past actions will be considered.
She added one figure from the current investigation. All 10 Singapore-based companies sent information notices have replied and agreed to appoint assessors. The seven Indonesian firms served with preventive measures notices in October were a separate step.
Not yet in force
The Bill takes effect on a date the minister appoints by notice in the Gazette. [DELETE] Fu said detailed rules for the assessor process would be set out in subsidiary legislation, and that guidance frameworks would be developed now that the Bill has passed.
Business restrictions on banks will be set by the minister in charge of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, not by the environment ministry. Fu said MAS will publish any such orders so that financial institutions know what is permitted, and that businesses which did not know, or had no reason to believe, that they were dealing with a designated entity will not be penalised.
She was also clear about the limit. "There is no guarantee of a successful prosecution," she told Parliament. The new law gives Singapore more ways to impose costs on companies it cannot easily bring to court. For this year's fires, the fines it can actually seek are still capped at S$2 million.
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