MELAKA: The Customs Department is set to launch its RM300 million uCustoms system at 15 ports nationwide in stages soon.
Customs director-general Datuk Seri T. Subromaniam said the system was aimed at detecting any attempt at smuggling in any undeclared items, especially cigarettes, and false declarations of goods.
“The system will be implemented according to zones. The western zone will start at the end of the year, whereas the northern and southern zones will begin early next year.
“Once we see that the system is working well, we will expand its use to all ports nationwide,” he said at the department’s state level Smuggling Prevention Campaign at SK Duyong.
Present was Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah.
On cigarette smuggling, Subromaniam said as of August, the department had seized 16 million sticks of illicit cigarettes worth about RM1 million, with undeclared duties of RM6.88 million.
Meanwhile, Amiruddin said the campaign was part of the Customs Department’s corporate social responsibility initiatives, aimed at producing a holistic approach to educating society to become the “eyes and ears” of the government in combating smuggling.
He said the public needed to be aware that smuggling activities was a threat to the country’s economy.
“As we heard in the tabling of the 2019 Budget, smuggling cases, especially in untaxed cigarettes, caused losses of RM1 billion, so programmes like these are one way of fighting such activities. And the introduction of uCustoms is another way,” he said.
