Malaysia - new strategy to penalize retailers who sell contraband cigarettes..

Logo Malaysian Custom Dept.
March 24, 2010 - KUCHING: A new strategy to penalise retailers who sell contraband (illegal, illicit, smuggled) cigarettes has been employed to curb a growing problem in Malaysia. Instead of only issuing the retailers with compound notices, the Customs Department will now arrest them and bring them to court under the ‘Ops Outlet’ programme that was launched last month. “Only a few cases were brought to court last year, whereas in the first two months of this year, more than 100 cases have been brought to court,” said the department’s deputy director-general Datuk Mohamed Khalid Yusuf.

Retailers who sell contraband cigarettes will be fined 10 times the value of cigarettes seized from them upon conviction.

“Currently in Peninsular Malaysia, one out of three cigarette packs sold in the market is illegal, whereas in Sabah and Sarawak, two out of three cigarette packs sold in the market are illegal,” Khalid told reporters after opening the 12th meeting of the Asean (Member Countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations) Single Window (ASW) working group here yesterday.

Khalid said that the new strategy was aimed at breaking the supply chain of this growing smuggling industry. The department believed that smokers would not buy contraband cigarettes if they were not easily available in the market.

The department seized contraband cigarettes with a market value of RM70mil in 2009, an increase of about RM12mil compared to 2008. In the first two months of 2010, contraband cigarettes worth RM17mil were confiscated. Most of the cigarettes were smuggled from neighbouring countries and are imitation products made in China. Other than illegal cigarettes, the smuggling of liquor, beer, vehicles and drugs also topped the department’s list.

Khalid said the department was concerned about the number of foreigners caught for drug smuggling. He said 46 people were arrested last year with drugs valued at RM64.7mil seized; 40 of them were from India, Iran, Pakistan and Japan. “All 14 people arrested this year were foreigners; they were from Iran, Thailand, Nigeria and New Guinea and RM26.4mil worth of drugs were seized,” said Khalid.

Asean country representatives are discussing technical matters on the establishment of the Asean Single Window (ASW), which is to be completed before 2015.

Reference: Customs Dept: Those found selling contraband cigarettes will be taken to court by NG AI FERN (aifern@thestar.com.my), theStar, 3/24/2010.

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