SINGAPORE: Singapore Customs is clamping down on the demand for contraband cigarettes at the street level in order to curb smuggling.

Some 3,000 buyers who had bought contraband cigarettes from street peddlers were booked in the first half of this year.

This number is a four-fold increase over the same period last year.

Singapore Customs said the number of peddlers caught also went up by 20 percent from 381 in the first six months of last year to 456 in the first half of this year.

From January to June this year, 2.5 million duty-unpaid cigarettes were seized, up from 2.3 million over the same period last year.

Singapore Customs warned that buying, selling, conveying, delivering, storing and dealing with contraband cigarettes are serious offences under the Customs Act.

Anyone with information on smuggling activities or evasion of Customs duty or GST should contact the Singapore Customs Intelligence Hotline at 1800-233-0000 or email customs_intelligence@customs.gov.sg.


- CNA/so