Cigarette, alcohol seizures see almost RM1b in tax savings
THE government prevented nearly a billion ringgit in lost tax revenue in the last two years from seized illicit cigarettes and alcohol, Deputy Finance Minister 1 Mohd Shahar Abdullah told the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
He said last year, there were 2,842 seizures of contraband alcohol and tobacco products by the Customs Department, with a total value of RM97.34 million.
“This saved the government RM707 million in potential tax losses. As of September this year, there were 2,518 cases with a seized value of RM41.43 million.
“The government was able to avoid RM281.69 million in tax losses through these operations,”
Shahar said in response to Nga Kor Ming (DAP-Teluk Intan).
In February this year, Customs director-general Datuk Seri Abdul Latif Abdul Kadir said revenue leakages were estimated at RM5.38 billion last year.
This, he said, was RM2.42 billion more than the target of RM2.96 billion set for the year.
Among the leakages detected were tax evasion from the seizure of various goods, other revenues such as the settlement of Accounts Receivable covering collection, remission, cancellation and adjustments, as well as claims bills issued by the Customs Department’s Compliance Division.