PETALING JAYA: A mandatory jail sentence for smuggling is among a slew of recommendations by Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) to help reduce the tax collection gap when the country implements the sales and services tax (SST) in September.
TI-M president Akhbar Satar was referring to reports that the Customs Department was seeking to collect RM3 billion in revenue through import and export tax collection.
In a statement, he said one of the ways to do this was to amend Section 135 of the Customs Act to make smuggling punishable with a mandatory jail term.
Presently, offenders may be fined or jailed. However, Akhbar said when only a fine was imposed, smugglers could simply pay the fee.
