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SINGAPORE \u2013 To pay less customs duty and goods and services tax on imported vehicles, the director of a car leasing company instructed his overseas suppliers to issue invoices with lower values.<\/p>\n
He also provided incorrect vehicle values to the Land Transport Authority (LTA), resulting in a shortfall in additional registration fees (ARFs).<\/p>\n
The offences led to a combined shortfall of more than $11 million.<\/p>\n
His misdeeds were uncovered when customs authorities detected discrepancies in the vehicle values declared for duty and GST assessment.<\/p>\n
On Sept 30, Mah Chee Wern was sentenced to 23 weeks\u2019 jail and fined more than $4.8 million after he pleaded guilty to 18 charges under the Customs Act.<\/p>\n
As he is unable to pay the fine, Mah will spend another 47 months and 37 weeks in jail.<\/p>\n
This means he will be jailed for more than five years in total.<\/p>\n
The 48-year-old also admitted to two other charges of giving incorrect information about the amount of ARF payable to LTA.<\/p>\n
Another 55 charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.<\/p>\n
The court heard that Mah was the director of Karkaunsl Leasing, a company that purchased and imported cars from overseas suppliers before selling them to retailers in Singapore.<\/p>\n
He managed the company\u2019s operations, liaised with overseas car suppliers, submitted declaration forms and paid the suppliers.<\/p>\n
In 2017, he instructed the overseas suppliers to issue invoices with values lower than the transaction prices that he had determined.<\/p>\n
These invoices were submitted to Singapore Customs for its assessment and evaluation of the imported cars.<\/p>\n
Mah then instructed declaring agents to apply for the necessary permits based on the suppressed values.<\/p>\n
Customs subsequently approved the import of cars at the lower transaction values, which led to lower payable excise duties.<\/p>\n
This allowed Mah to increase his profit margins when he resold the vehicles locally. He earned about $800 for every Japanese domestic model sold, and $1,500 per continental car.<\/p>\n
Between January 2017 and February 2022, the company imported 855 cars with a total under-declared value of about $26.4 million. The cars were worth more than $32 million.<\/p>\n
Mah evaded more than $1.16 million in excise duties, court documents showed.<\/p>\n
Some time in November 2020, he became acquainted with the director of Hybrid Vehicles Singapore (HVS), identified as \u201cC\u201d in court documents.<\/p>\n
C engaged Karkaunsl to handle the importation of cars and the submission of documents on behalf of HVS.<\/p>\n
He also assigned another director, Su May, to liaise with Mah.<\/p>\n
Once orders were placed, Su May or the overseas suppliers would send Mah invoices for the submission of documents.<\/p>\n
These invoices contained suppressed values that were determined by Su May\u2019s boss.<\/p>\n
Mah submitted the documentation, applied for duty payment permits, and remitted payment to the overseas suppliers in amounts higher than the invoice values.<\/p>\n
He would propose alternative figures if he found the invoice values too low.<\/p>\n
Mah also took instructions from Su May before purchasing foreign currency to pay the suppliers.<\/p>\n
After she approved the exchange rate and transferred the money to him, he remitted it to the suppliers.<\/p>\n
He then issued local invoices in Singapore dollars from Karkaunsl to HVS.<\/p>\n
The amounts reflected the actual value of the cars, his service fees, and the duty and GST payable based on the suppressed values declared to customs.<\/p>\n
Su May would then pay Karkaunsl the stipulated amounts.<\/p>\n
She had instructed Mah not to transfer the amounts stated in the overseas suppliers\u2019 invoices, as these were lower than the actual values of the cars.<\/p>\n
Despite this, Mah used the invoices to support his submissions to Customs for the assessment and valuation of cars imported by HVS through Karkaunsl.<\/p>\n
This resulted in Customs approving the import of cars at a lower value, causing Mah to underpay excise duty and GST.<\/p>\n
Between December 2020 and February 2021, Mah was involved in importing 11 cars \u2013 worth more than $828,000 \u2013 with suppressed values under this arrangement.<\/p>\n
He evaded more than $45,000 in excise duties and more than $19,000 in GST.<\/p>\n
Su May was fined $418,300 in July 2025 after pleading guilty to the fraudulent evasion of duty and GST involving 34 vehicles, with more than $72,000 in duty and GST evaded.<\/p>\n
The court also heard that between February 2017 and April 2024, Mah\u2019s company had imported 889 vehicles and incorrectly declared the open market values (OMVs) to customs.<\/p>\n
The incorrect data was transferred into LTA\u2019s Vehicle Registration and Licensing System, affecting the calculation of ARF.<\/p>\n
Investigations found that out of the 889 imported vehicles, 876 were registered with LTA, while 13 were not.<\/p>\n
The incorrect OMV declarations made by Mah resulted in a shortfall of more than $9.9 million in ARF.<\/p>\n
Those convicted of fraudulently evading duty or GST can be fined up to 20 times the amount of duty or GST evaded.<\/p>\n
An offender can also be jailed for up to 12 months.<\/p>\n
Under the Road Traffic Act, any person who gives incorrect information about any matter affecting the amount of ARF chargeable can be fined up to $10,000, or jailed up to six months.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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