KUALA LUMPUR: The Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4 Centre) has called for a comprehensive review of standard operating procedures (SOPs) in freight forwarding companies to address the issue of misclassified goods.
C4 Centre chief executive officer Pushpan Murugiah said when commenting on today's bust involving a smuggling ring which evaded taxes estimated at RM3.5 billion over a 10 year period.
He said the issue of goods being misclassified has been recurring, such as in this case, and in relation to non-medical items being labelled as medical equipment, and the use of unknown companies in the shipping processes.
"This is not a new problem. It has been ongoing for many years and is well-known within the industry.
"The Customs Department or the government must establish a committee to thoroughly review and identify flaws within the SOPs and processes," he said.
Pushpan said the need for improved efficiency in customs operations is emphasized as a means to bolster government revenue.
He proposed the creation of a database of legitimate freight forwarding companies to help identify and blacklist people involved in these illegal activities.
He said ensuring accountability among company directors and owners is also essential.
"We cannot continue to lose revenue due to these issues. It's well known and has been happening repeatedly.
"Customs must take the initiative to address this problem instead of maintaining a 'business as usual' approach.
"Too much money has been lost due to these systemic leakages, which are detrimental to the country."
He also raised alarms regarding the temporary docking and release of ships and containers, suggesting possible collusion and bribery within the customs process.
"Now it's important to understand why these ships or these containers are allowed to be docked temporarily and then depart.
"Who was signing off those documents? What happened to our scanners? We invest so much money to have scanners to help the customs officers be more efficient in scanning for contraband or smuggling goods.
"These are all taxpayers money that have been invested to ensure that we have a good agency to help us improve our revenue for the country, but it appears not to be working," said Pushpan.
The largest smuggling syndicate ever on record at Port Klang was today foiled by teams from multiple agencies.
In a special operation led by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), authorities acted on combined intelligence gathered by the Royal Malaysian Customs Department (RMCD) and the Inland Revenue Board (IRB).