KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Customs personnel seized over 6,000 litres of alcoholic beverages that had suspected fake tax stamps on the bottles in Sabah’s east coast Tawau district.
These drinks, worth more than RM360,000 including in unpaid duty, were confiscated in two operations carried out in the district under the operation dubbed “Ops Macan Legit”.
The latest seizure was made at an outlet at Jalan Tawau Lama on June 25 while the previous was back on March 13 at Jalan Dunlop.
Sabah Customs assistant director-general Datuk Mohd Nasir Deraman said the drinks were all locally made.
The bottles had suspected fake tax stamps on them
In the first operation on March 13, he said, they seized drinks valued at RM206,814.29 including in unpaid taxes, while the second operation saw them hauling in RM155,505.25 worth of alcohol.
“All the drinks had fake Customs tax stamps on them,” he told reporters at the Tawau Customs office on Wednesday (July 3).
He added that the impound notices had been issued to the managers of the outlets who were both local men aged 46 and 55, adding both were also ordered to report to the Tawau Customs Enforcement Office.
Mohd Nasir said the seized items have been brought to the office for further probe under Section 74(1)(a) of the Excise Act 1976.
He urged the public to continue working with the authorities to curb smuggling activities by calling the toll-free Customs line at 1-800-88-8855.
