A Singaporean male was fined for trying to evade Goods and Services Tax (GST) after under-declaring the value of the goods he was carrying at the Woodlands Checkpoint earlier on 28 June 2018.
In a Facebook post on Monday (1 July), Singapore Customs stated that two observant Singapore Customs (SC) officers stopped a traveller’s attempt to evade Goods and Services Tax (GST) at the Woodlands Checkpoint on 28 June 2018.
It noted that the officers found that the value declared by the 34-year-old Singaporean man for more than 200 long dresses bought in Malaysia was too low and suspected that it was an attempt to evade GST.
Further investigations by the bureau then revealed that the actual value was about seven times higher than the amount declared by the man.
According to SC, the dresses were meant for sale in Singapore, and the man had under-declared the value of the dresses in an attempt to maximise his profits.
The amount of GST evaded amounted to over $370. The man was issued with a composition sum of $3,700 for under-declaring the value of the items brought into Singapore.
SC then stressed that it is the responsibility of travellers to make accurate and complete declarations of all taxable items brought into Singapore. Under the Customs Act, any person who fail to declare or make an incorrect declaration of taxable goods may be compounded up to 10 times the amount of duty and/or GST evaded, or charged in Court.
