The Customs (Amendment) Bill (“Bill“) was introduced for Second Reading and passed in Parliament on 8 January 2025. The Bill will amend the Customs Act 1960 (“Act“) to:
- improve Singapore Customs’ (“Customs“) operational effectiveness and strengthen its regulatory and enforcement regime; and
- introduce two new offence provisions and increase the maximum penalties for specified offences, for greater deterrent effect.
Improve Effectiveness of Customs’ Regulatory and Enforcement Operations Regime
The first set of amendments, once in force, will grant additional powers to Customs to improve its operational effectiveness. These amendments include the following:
- The Director-General of Customs will have the power to authorise auxiliary police officers to exercise powers of search, arrest, and seizure. Extending these powers beyond police officers will allow Customs to better optimise manpower for its enforcement operations, and ensures consistency with the practice in other public agencies.
- Customs will have the legal power to require licensees to remove all dutiable goods from licensed warehouses before the expiry or withdrawal of their licences. Where a licensee fails to do so, Customs will have the legal powers to remove and dispose of all dutiable goods from the warehouse, and recover any costs incurred for the removal and disposal of these goods.
- Customs Officers will have the power to stop and conduct searches on the belongings of a person that is committing, or is reasonably suspected to have committed, an offence under the Act. This widens the situations in which Customs officers can search persons and allows for the more effective conduct of inland enforcement operations.
- Customs can seize computers or associated devices, mobile communication devices, and cash that are reasonably believed to be connected to offences under the Act.
New Offence Provisions and Increase in Maximum Penalties
The second set of amendments introduce two new offence provisions and enhance the penalties for specified offences. The amendments will:
- allow Customs to act against individuals who allow their premises or vehicles to be used to commit an offence under the Act;
- introduce a new offence provision for acts of altering, suppressing, concealing, or destroying any books, documents, or other records with the intent of obstructing investigations under the Act; and
- enhance the penalties for some offences to strengthen their deterrent effect. For offences involving the evasion of duties, where the amount of duty cannot be ascertained, the maximum fine will be increased from S$5,000 to S$10,000. This aligns the maximum fine with that of other similar offences under the Act. For specified offences under Section 128 of the Act, such as those related to fraudulent evasion, and possession or storage of uncustomed or prohibited goods, the Courts may impose an imprisonment term in addition to the current penalty of a fine.
As emphasised during the Second Reading Speech by the Second Minister for Finance, Mr Chee Hong Tat, the amendments will further strengthen Singapore’s status as a trusted and thriving trade hub by allowing Customs to carry out its regulatory and enforcement operations more effectively and strengthen the deterrent effect for offences under the Act.
Click on the following links for more information:
- Customs (Amendment) Bill (available on the Parliament of Singapore website at parliament.gov.sg)
- Second Reading Speech by Second Minister for Finance, Mr Chee Hong Tat, on the Customs (Amendment) Bill (available on the Ministry of Finance website at mof.gov.sg)
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