Singapore State Courts fined Chin Yew Wen, a Singaporean national, $2.38 million (in Singapore dollars) for evading Goods and Services Tax, Singapore Customs announced July 5. Should the defendant not pay, he will spend 32 months in prison. The sole director of freight forwarding company GLS Shipping, Chin pleaded guilty to two charges of fraudulently evading GST, two similar charges and four other charges of falsification of documents after Singapore Customs found discrepancies between the importer's Cargo Clearance Permits and GLS's permits. Customs said Chin gave the agency fraudulent values of the goods when making declarations for the permits, reflecting lower values than the value of the goods and pocketing the difference in the GST paid. The evaded GST amounted to $433,484.49.

50 E-Services on the Singapore Customs' website's "Customs Forms & Services Links" page are now also available on the Networked Trade Platform, Singapore Customs said July 1. The move allows traders already using the NTP to access the forms on the same website, it said.

India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade issued a clarification July 5 on its import policy for 201 tariff lines from "Free" to "Free subject to registration under the Paper Import Monitoring System." The clarification followed an inquiry to DGFT on whether the PIMS registration was required at both the import point into Special Economic Zone (SEZ)/Free Trade and Warehousing Zones (FTWZ) and at the Customs Clearance from the SEZ to the Domestic Tariff Area (DTA) and whether the registration also is needed for Export Oriented Units at the time of import by an EOU.

India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade extended the deadline for submitting applications under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS). Traders who exported goods from Sept. 1, 2020, to Dec. 31, 2020, can now submit MEIS applications until Aug. 31, 2022.

Singapore Customs arrested four individuals -- two Chinese nationals and two Singaporean nationals -- and seized 1,100 cartons of cigarettes for which duties had not been paid, the customs agency announced June 30. During the operation, Singapore Customs saw brown boxes being moved between a van and a car parked next to it. Officers conducted checks on the suspicion that the boxes had duty-unpaid cigarettes, ultimately discovering the 1,100 cartons and arresting the four individuals. Singapore Customs said the total duty and Goods and Services tax evaded were $93,940 and $7,470 (in Singapore dollars), respectively. "Investigations are ongoing," it said.

Teo Song Cheong, a Singaporean national, was sentenced by the State Courts to pay a $7,000 fine for failing to keep the bills of lading for exported goods in 2021, Singapore Customs announced June 28. Teo is the director of freight forwarding company Maple-Gold Pte. and local transportation service firm Akarui Pte. He pleaded guilty to one charge of failing to retain trade documents following Singapore Customs' investigations into his companies' Cargo Clearance Permits used for cigarettes shipped to Australia. Checks of the shipments in Australia discovered plastic film rolls instead of the cigarettes.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations recently launched a plan to expedite customs clearance among member countries, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported June 29. The plan will offer “a number of benefits” under a mutual recognition arrangement to companies that are validated as an authorized economic operator by an ASEAN nation, including less documentation and cargo inspection. The companies will also benefit from “priority treatment” if they are chosen for inspection. The plan is expected to be approved by all ASEAN members before year-end.

Singapore imposed an $8 per liter duty on imports of samsu, Singapore Customs announced June 27. To comply with the April 2020 Declaration on Trade in Essential Goods for Combating the COVID-19 Pandemic, duties were discontinued on medicated and other varieties of samsu. Effective July 1, Singapore Customs is reinstating duties on medicated samsu of an alcoholic strength by volume not exceeding 40%, medicated samsu of an alcoholic strength by volume exceeding 40%, other samsu of an alcoholic strength by volume not exceeding 40%, and other samsu of an alcoholic strength by volume exceeding 40%.

Singapore acceded to the World Customs Organization's International Convention on the Simplification and Harmonisation of Customs Procedures (Revised Kyoto Convention), Singapore Customs announced. The nation said the convention sets standards on customs procedures, enforcing standards on areas such as "import and export formalities, duties and taxes collection, customs warehouses schemes, regulation of free trade zones, as well as temporary importations and exportations of goods." Ho Chee Pong, director-general of Singapore Customs, said "Singapore’s accession affirms our commitment to reinforce our position as a reputable major trading hub, and to maintain procedures and standards that facilitate international trade."

Alexander Abramov, co-founder of Russian steel company Evraz, filed a case at the Federal Court of Australia challenging his placement on Australia's Russia sanctions list, The Guardian reported this month. Abramov lives in Switzerland, has made an estimated $6 billion from the Russian steel industry and was sanctioned by Australia in April. Counsel for Abramov told The Guardian that the billionaire "doesn’t satisfy the definition of a person who should be on the sanctions list" since he does not have the "requisite influence" on the Russian regime to qualify as a sanctioned individual. Abramov does not have business in Australia, but he does reportedly own property in New Zealand.