HONG KONG: The Commissioner of Customs and Excise, Mr Clement Cheung, said here the other day at the Customs and Excise Department 2014 year-end review that the department has sought to further enhance efficacy in terms of enforcement and trade facilitation through implementation of structural reforms and strategic adjustments.
This was achieved with an analysis of changes in the external environment and of the developments and evolution of various illegal activities as well as closer co-operation with other agencies and enhanced co-ordination within the department.
For revenue collection on dutiable commodities, duty collected by the department in 2014 amounted to $9.7 billion, representing an increase of 6 per cent over 2013. Sixty per cent of the duty was from tobacco products ($5.8 billion), 36 per cent was from hydrocarbon oil ($3.5 billion) and the remaining 4 per cent was from alcoholic products ($380 million).
Mr Cheung said that a total of 255 smuggling cases were detected in 2014, representing a drop of 10 per cent when compared to 2013. Among the cases, 85 per cent involved smuggling activities between the Mainland and Hong Kong.
Items seized were mainly mobile phones, tablet computers, electronic parts and photographic equipment.
Since the implementation of export control on powdered formula in March 2013, about 9 160 cases have been detected at control points with 89 000 kilograms of powdered formula seized. On endangered species, a total of 462 cases were detected during the year, with 138 300 kilograms of items confiscated. The confiscated items were mainly wood logs, weighing 124 600 kilograms, representing an 11-fold increase.
