Alcohol, cigarettes and luxury bags were among the undeclared taxable and dutiable goods discovered in the luggage of inbound travellers ahead of the travel peak season of the June school holidays. The amount of recovered duties and GST was $18,491 in total while the penalty imposed was close to a total of $28,000.
The Singapore Customs and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority which held a joint operation between May 15th and 21st discovered 115 travellers who failed to declare and pay duties or GST for liquors in excess of duty-free allowance, taxable goods exceeding the GST import relief allowance and cigarettes and tobacco products.
A Singaporean man and his girlfriend were caught with 5 undeclared luxury bags purchased overseas which were valued at $13,825 while the amount of GST involved was $1,106. A Singapore woman carried an undeclared luxury bag and a luxury watch to the total value of $5,637 while the amount of GST was $450.96.
A foreign male was found carrying 6 packets of undeclared cigarettes in a ‘Happy Birthday’ foil wrapper while it was found that a male employment pass holder had used the Customs@SG application to avoid paying the excise duty of $15.14 by falsely declaring a bottle of whisky as GST goods.
Singapore Customs’ Senior Assistant Director-General for checkpoints stated that it was the responsibility of all arriving travellers to make a complete and accurate declaration of all taxable and dutiable items in their possession on arrival and that travellers could end up paying more as penalties.
Any individual in any fraudulent evasion of, or attempting to fraudulently evade excise duty or Customs duty is guilty of an offence and will be liable on conviction under the Customs Act to a fine of up to 20 times the value of GST and duty evaded, or jailed for up to 2 years.
