KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has lost over RM2.5 billion in revenue to customs fraud over the last three years. This was largely due to freight forwarders falsifying documents, said the Customs Department, where shipments containing taxable items were declared to be other products.
A total of RM1.06 billion in taxes and duties has gone uncollected this year alone, with goods worth RM731 million smuggled into the country, said Customs director-general Subromaniam Tholasy on Wednesday. The country’s top three smuggling hot spots are Port Klang in Selangor; Bukit Kayu Hitam, a border town in northern state Kedah; and Sibu, Sarawak. In 2015, the value of smuggled goods seized throughout Malaysia by Customs was RM416 million, rising to RM447 million last year. There are more than 3,000 forwarding agents in Malaysia and the department has stopped issuing new permits since 2006. In Sibu and Sarikei, the department foiled attempts to smuggle goods worth RM27 million with a tax value of RM6 million between October and this month. These included items such as fireworks, cigarettes and beer from China, which had been declared as furniture and other goods. Mr Subromaniam said action would be taken against the three forwarding agents involved in that case. “This includes suspending their licence indefinitely and revoking it later if they are convicted under section 114 of the Customs Act 1967,” he said.
According to Mr Subromaniam, a first-time offender convicted of smuggling is liable to a fine of not less than 10 times and not more than 20 times the value of the goods smuggled or three years’ imprisonment, or both.
