SINGAPORE: Officers of the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) seized 4,844 cartons of non-duty paid cigarettes after they conducted checks on a Malaysia-destined lorry at Woodlands Checkpoint.
According to details, the vehicle was driven by a 50-year-old male Malaysian, who had declared the lorry contained a consignment of cooking oil. However, upon noticing anomalies in the scanned images of the vehicle, ICA officers searched the vehicle and found duty-unpaid cigarettes hidden in one of the boxes among the consignment.
Further checks on a few other boxes revealed more duty-unpaid cigarettes. The driver, the exhibits and the lorry were handed over to the Singapore Customs for further investigations, said the ICA.
The potential duty as well as Goods and Services Tax on the non-duty paid cigarettes amounted to about S$382,600 and S$23,320, respectively.
The vehicle used in the commission of such offences is liable to be forfeited.
