Public Consultation on Proposed Customs (Amendment) Bill

Introduction

    The Ministry of Finance (MOF) and Singapore Customs (Customs) invite the public to provide feedback on proposed amendments to the Customs Act 1960 (“Customs Act”) to improve Customs’ operational effectiveness and strengthen Customs’ regulatory and enforcement regime. 

2.   Interested parties are invited to provide feedback on these legislative amendments from 13 September 2024 to 4 October 2024. 

Scope of the Consultation Exercise 

3.   The following amendments will improve the operational effectiveness of Customs’ regulatory and enforcement operations:

a)   Provide Customs with additional legal powers to perform its regulatory and enforcement operations, i.e., to manage non-compliant licensed warehouse licensees; to seize computers or associated devices, mobile communication devices, and cash proceeds; and to conduct searches on belongings of persons that are committing or are reasonably suspected to have committed an offence; and

b)   Enable the Director-General (DG) of Customs to authorise auxiliary police officers (APOs) to exercise some powers of search, arrest, and seizure, in order for Customs to better optimise its manpower for enforcement operations.

4.   The following amendments introduce two new offence provisions, and increase the maximum penalties for specified offences¹, for greater deterrent effect:

a)   Introduce a new offence provision to deter individuals from taking actions that may assist another in the commission of an offence under the Customs Act; 

b)   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 Customs Act; and

c)   Increase the maximum penalty for conviction of a specified offence where the amount of duties payable cannot be ascertained and include an option for imprisonment for specified offences. 

5.   For more details, please refer to Annex A.

Guidelines 

6.   MOF and Customs value your input and encourage comments that are clear, concise, and focused on how the proposed legislative amendments can be refined. Respondents are requested to observe these guidelines: 

a)   Please identify yourself and the organisation you represent (if applicable) to facilitate clarification of comments if necessary.

b)   Focus your comments on how the legislative amendments can be clearer; or on how the changes can be improved.

c)   Provide your feedback via the FormSG link, and support your points with illustrations, examples, data, or alternative formulations of the proposed amendments.

7.   Participants are reminded that the draft legislation is circulated solely for consultation purposes and should therefore not be used for individual or business decisions as it does not represent the final legislation. All feedback received will be thoroughly reviewed, and accepted suggestions will be incorporated in the Bill for introduction in Parliament.

Period of Consultation

8.   The draft Customs (Amendment) Bill is available for public consultation from 13 September 2024, 0900 to 4 October 2024, 0900. We regret to inform that feedback received after 4 October 2024, 0900 will not be considered.

Public Consultation Details

9.   The public can access the consultation documents on MOF’s website ( www.mof.gov.sg) and the REACH consultation portal ( www.reach.gov.sg). We request that all interest parties submit your comments via FormSG at https://go.gov.sg/feedback-customs-bill. 

Summary of Response

10.   We will publish a summary of the main comments received on MOF’s website, along with our responses, in October 2024. The summary will not disclose the identity of the respondents and will not separately address or acknowledge every comment received.

Attachments

• Annex A: Draft Customs (Amendment) Bill

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[1] This refers to the offences specified in sections 128D – 128K of the Customs Act, which include offences relating to fraudulent evasion, import and export of uncustomed or prohibited goods, illegal removal of goods from Customs’ control, etc.