LABUAN: Labuan Customs Department director Wasimin Daiman yesterday said no declaration fees were needed for all duty-free vehicles brought out of Labuan.
He said that on November 10, the director-general of Customs Department announced that Labuan Customs Department would reenforce the declaration of Customs Form 1 under Article 21A, Customs Duty Order (Exemption) 1988.
The order was for all duty-free vehicles intended to be brought out of Labuan, such as to Sabah and Sarawak.
Wasimin said due to public complaints over costs imposed by agents, the department decided that declarations needed to be done directly at the customs vehicle ferry unit.
“The declaration order is retained but it needs to be done directly at the customs vehicle ferry unit without going through any agents, and without any payment.
“The procedure is as usual where duty-free vehicle owners need to declare their vehicles by using E21A Vehicle Movement Control forms, formerly known as the e-Vis Card,” he said.
A spokesperson for one of the agents here had on December 17 said owners of duty-free vehicles were only required to pay for their declaration fee totaling RM100 a year.
Wasimind said the department had never appointed any agent to collect payments for the department.
“We did discuss with some of the agents here to prevent them from manipulating the public, and payment was for the purpose of processing the customs forms only.
Wasimin also said owners of duty-free vehicles were required to fill in the General Bond forms as a guarantee for duties, and another form as a pledge to obey a set of requirements.
For some categories of vehicles, a bank guarantee and its duty cost must be declared, such as for luxury cars with duties costing over RM150,000, including vehicles registered outside Labuan and those having bad records of returning to Labuan after the provided time limit.
“We will enhance our operation to track down vehicles, and those found committing the act will be fined under Section 138 of the Customs Act 1967, and will be compounded up to RM10,000.
“Owners and their vehicles will be blacklisted too,” he said, adding that those who had made the declaration for next year, the form they had filled in would still be used and valid until the end of year 2013.
Meanwhile, Wasimin disclosed that 25 vehicles were confiscated from January to November for going against the exemption law, and over RM100,000 in compound fines had been collected for various offences under the customs law.
He further disclosed that the total collection for the department, including compound fines for the same period, was RM483 million.