Customs Department seizes 22 luxury cars
15 Ferrari,3Lamborghini and Bentley, Roll Royce, Porsche dan Nissan GTR 35.
In the pound: Some of the 22 luxury cars seized by the Customs after the owners failed to pay excise duties when they breached duty-free restrictions.
KUALA LUMPUR: The authorities are not impressed with a group of owners of luxury sports cars like Ferrari and Lamboghini, found to have evaded Customs duties amounting to RM17mil.
A total of 22 such cars, valued at RM25.8mil, were confiscated by the Customs Department this month after officers found that the owners had breached Clause 21A of the Customs Duty Order (Exemption) 1988 for not paying the duties.
Under Clause 21A, vehicles bought on the islands of Langkawi or Labuan may not be kept away for more than a month each time, or for more than a total of 90 days a year.
Customs director-general Datuk Seri Khazali Ahmad said the cars were taken out of the duty-free islands for more than the allowed period.
“Their owners were not permanent residents of the islands, who are granted exemptions under the clause. Furthermore, the vehicles had been used in the mainland for over six months,” he told reporters here yesterday.
Khazali said the first batch of the 22 cars – 11 Ferraris and a Rolls Royce – were confiscated on Oct 16 at a hotel carpark here by a team from the Kuala Lumpur Customs Department, who received a tip-off.
Two days later, the same team seized a Ferrari and a Lamborghini from a house in Desa Park City.
On Sunday, four cars – two Ferraris, a Bentley and a Porsche – were seized from a trailer at the Tapah R&R.
Khazali also said his department has identified 379 other vehicles that have flouted the same regulation and warned that the owners had two weeks from today to surrender their car.
The STAR
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