Customs dept suspends 31 agent companies

The Customs Department has suspended the licences of 31 of its agent companies so far this year after being found involved in smuggling and other serious offences, said its director-general Subromaniam Tholasy.

He said among the serious offences committed by the agents were under-declaring the real value of goods, falsifying documents or forging signatures, presenting false customs official receipts to importers and committing various smuggling offences and fly-by-night activities.

At present, there are almost 3,000 customs agents nationwide and they have been warned to comply with the rules and regulations or risk being taken action against including having their licences suspended, Subromaniam told a press conference in conjunction with the 83rd Malaysia Customs directors meeting in Kuching today.

He also said that several cases of smuggling were detected through improper customs declaration in the first 35 days this year.

“In a recent drug seizure case, the item (drugs) was declared as salt. In another case, cigarettes were declared in the import manifest as sundry goods, curtains and other items,” he added.

According to Subromaniam, smuggling and trade fraud cases were quite rampant and had prompted the department to take several measures to curb such activities.

He said through the newly-introduced agent policy, all agents were required to carry out due diligence and learn about their customers (importer/exporter) and the items to be delivered.

“They must also take full responsibility for customs declarations and clearly know what goods are being declared,” he said.

Last year alone, the department managed to save more than RM1 billion in revenue by successfully foiling attempts to smuggle several commodities including vehicles, cigarettes and liquor.

Meanwhile, in his speech, Subromaniam said the government projected a revenue of RM60.96 billion this year, an increase of four percent of the total revenue collected in 2017.

He said in 2017, the department had collected RM58.82 billion and that the goods and services tax (GST) had contributed RM4.03 billion or 75 percent of the department’s revenue.

- Bernama