Kota Kinabalu: The Royal Malaysian Customs Department (JKDM) Sabah Zone managed to record a total of RM348 million in seizures for the first six months of this year.
Its Assistant Director General Datuk Mohd Nasir Deraman said that compared to the same period last year, the amount increased in terms of value but the number of cases decreased.
“For the first six months, in terms of volume, it increased because it involved large confiscations. In terms of the number of cases, it decreased, but in terms of value and quantity, it increased.
“Overall, for the six months, we recorded RM348 million in seizures involving especially drugs, cigarettes and liquor,” he said.
SPONSORED CONTENT Shell awards Sabah LiveWIRE winners Kota Kinabalu: Shell has awarded five enterprises as the state winners of Shell LiveWIRE Malaysia 2024, following the Sabah state finals held at Plaza Shell in Kota Kinabalu. . Read more According to him, in the context of Customs fighting smuggling, it focuses on three main commodities, namely cigarettes, liquor and drugs, but Sabah is faced with other commodities such as imported chicken.
“Only in Sabah, based on achievements and records, frozen goods such as chicken become a large commodity in capture and seizure.
“It is imported goods from abroad and entered the State through Sepanggar Port for domestic consumers,” he said.
Although the situation is now under control and cases had decreased, Mohd Nasir said JKDM would continue to increase control measures at the ports through inspection methods using scanning machines equipped with Artificial Intelligence (AI), in addition to enforcing instructions to delivery agents to make complete and orderly pledges so that JKDM could directly identify the pledged goods.
At the same time, he said as a check-and-balance, JKDM held umbrella operations outside the port as a second check to ensure that the situation could improve the compliance of importers in Sabah’s main ports, namely Sepanggar, Tawau and Sandakan.
Mohd Nasir, who was accompanied by his wife Datin Halizah Abdul Samat, was met by the media after paying a courtesy call to the Head of State Tun Juhar Mahiruddin and his wife Toh Puan Norlidah R M Jasni at Istana Seri Kinabalu, here, Thursday.
Regarding the visit, he said the purpose of the visit was to express his gratitude to Juhar and informed about his retirement effective Friday, in addition to expressing his appreciation and gratitude for the good relationship between Istana Seri Kinabalu and JKDM Sabah Zone.
Mohd Nasir, who started reporting on October 10, 2022, was awarded the Panglima Gemilang Darjah Kinabalu (PGDK) by Juhar in conjunction with his 70th official birthday celebration last year.
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