2 nabbed for evading cigarette duty and GST worth over $542k
Two Singaporean men, aged 21 and 24, were arrested on Jan 31 for allegedly failing to pay the duty and goods and services tax (GST) on 4,420 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes.
The Singapore Customs said in a statement on Feb 7 that the total duty and GST evaded amounts to $542,959.
The men were arrested in two operations, the first of which took place in a multi-storey carpark at Jurong West Street 74 where Customs officers spotted the 21-year-old walking towards a van.
Officers found 2,680 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes in the van’s rear compartment, and seized both the cigarettes and the van.
In another operation in an open carpark at Bukit Batok Street 31, the 24-year-old man was seen standing suspiciously behind a van.
The van’s rear compartment was found to contain 1,740 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes which officers seized along with the van.
The statement added that the 24-year-old man had allegedly received instructions on where to collect and deliver the duty-unpaid cigarettes via a social messaging platform.
He then relayed these instructions to the younger man, whom he had allegedly engaged to assist him with the distribution of the duty-unpaid cigarettes.
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