KUALA LUMPUR – The Pengkalan Hulu magistrates’ court in Perak spent almost nine hours yesterday reading 600 charges against three directors of Seruntun Maju Sdn Bhd, but the company argues that the prosecution is both contemptuous and malicious.
The directors were charged with breaching their duty-free shop licence conditions six years ago. However, the company said the conditions are technically illegal.
Following a Court of Appeal judgement last year between Seruntun Maju and the Perak Customs director-general, the company was given a licence to operate at the Malaysia-Thailand border from 9am to 9pm.
The licence included provisions that required the company to prepare information regarding its customers – including their names, travel documents and vehicle numbers.
The company told the Customs Department that it could not possibly do that, saying that “the appellant’s customers from Thailand are allowed to purchase goods at the appellant’s duty-free shop. The said customers will not enter the Malaysian principal customs area”.
In 2016, Seruntun Maju was issued its licence, without Appendix D, which contains the conditions to prepare customer information. But in September the same year, the department sent it Appendix D.
In 2019, the department said the company has failed to keep records of their purchasers as stated in Appendix D.
The case went to court and reached the Court of Appeal, with Datuk Hamid Sultan Abu Backer part of the bench.
The court said the conditions set out in the licence ran contrary to the Customs Act 1967.
Basically, the conditions were null and void, which is why the company is baffled by the decision of the Customs Department to prosecute the directors.
Duty Free International Limited – Seruntun Maju’s parent company – in a statement said: “The criminal charges are made on the basis that Seruntun Maju and its officers had breached the conditions of the duty-free license issued by Customs to it under Section 65D of the Customs Act.
“However, as previously announced, the legality of the conditions that were allegedly breached was challenged by Seruntun Maju through a judicial review application (civil proceeding) on November 23, 2017.
“On June 18 last year, the conditions were unanimously held by the Court of Appeal to be ultra-vires of Section 65D of the Customs Act and ought to be quashed.”
Seruntun Maju said the Customs Department appealed the Court of Appeal decision to the Federal Court, but the apex judicial body dismissed the appeal.
In other words, the department has exhausted all avenues to challenge the fact that the conditions are illegal.
It is understood that the company has requested the department to not proceed, as the charges are on the issues already ruled by the Court of Appeal, which held that the conditions contravenes Section 65D of the Customs Act.
The department was also cautioned that their prosecution is both contemptuous and malicious.
All three directors – Ahmad Zubir Khalid, Ong Bok Siong and Mohd Radzuan Abdullah – plead not guilty to the charges. – The Vibes, February 26, 2021
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