Were you planning to cross the causeway for a JB day trip?
Don’t say Goody Feed buey brother—remember to check that you aren’t carrying any dutiable goods. If you are, remember to declare them at the customs.
That is, unless you don’t mind being fined a few hundred dollars.
Smoker Allegedly Fined $200 For Entering Singapore Without Declaring His Pack of Cigarettes
On Thursday (11 May), a post reminding smokers to declare tobacco products at the Singapore customs arose on Facebook.
The post included an image of a saman letter, sharing that a smoker was fined $200 for failing to declare his pack of cigarettes when going through Singapore customs.
However, the Facebook user clarified that it was someone else who kena saman, not him—we don’t know if he’s blowing smoke, but okay.
According to the saman letter issued by the Singapore Customs, our mysterious smoker was fined $200 when going through Woodlands Checkpoint on Wednesday (10 May).
A pack of undeclared “non-SP compliant” Mevius cigarettes were found on the smoker when he was going through the arrival passenger X-Ray. Officers disposed of the cigarettes found.
“SP” here stands for standardised packaging, a measure implemented by Singapore to regulate tobacco products—we’ll talk more about that later.
The saman letter also clarified that the smoker’s failure to declare his pack of cigarettes was an offence under section 128B(1)(a) of the Customs Act—which essentially makes it a crime for you to stroll through Singapore customs without declaring dutiable goods, including tobacco products.
As a result, the smoker was fined $200—a hefty price to pay for failing to declare a pack of cigarettes.
Maybe we deserve our reputation of being a “fine city”.
Standardised Packaging Requirements for Tobacco Products
It’s no secret that tobacco products have been causing headaches for our gahmen for years. Singapore’s tobacco control measures run the whole gamut—legislating a minimum age, taxing tobacco, and a range of public education efforts.
One of these tobacco control measures includes the Standardised Packing (SP) regulations.
It’s pretty self-explanatory. All tobacco products in Singapore must have standardised packaging. These SP requirements are set out in the Tobacco (Control of Advertisements and Sale) (Appearance, Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, which took effect in July 2020.
If you’ve ever wondered why the brand and variant names of cigarettes are always printed in that standard white font and why those graphic health warnings on cigarette boxes are huge, it’s because of the SP regulations.
And it’s not just cigarettes. The SP regulations cover all tobacco products.
The packaging of all tobacco products in Singapore can only display their brand and variant names in a standard colour and font style. That means no fancy logos or images.
The only images allowed on the packaging of tobacco products are those graphic health warnings showing images of lung or mouth cancer. Those images must have a minimum size occupying 75% of the tobacco product packaging’s surface.
In the current case, the smoker didn’t kena saman just because he had a pack of cigarettes—it was because his pack of cigarettes did not comply with Singapore’s SP requirements.
If you’re a customs noob, fret not. Goody Feed’s here to remind you of what you must declare at checkpoints.
According to Singapore Customs, there are four types of dutiable goods—intoxicating liquors with more than 0.5% alcohol by volume, tobacco products not complying with SP requirements, motor vehicles and motor fuel.
So yes, your Shandy must be declared as well.
Have any of these goods with you while going through customs? You better declare them to avoid breaking your bank and paying a fine.
As this was our mysterious smoker’s first time failing to declare his pack of cigarettes, he was fined $200.
The smoker could be fined $500 and $800 per packet for a second and third offence, respectively.