Off the market: Mohd Nasir (third from right) and his senior officers showing the seized chicken meat at the press conference here yesterday.
KOTA KINABALU: Customs personnel foiled an attempt to smuggle in some RM2.75mil worth of frozen chicken meat, including in unpaid taxes, at the Sepanggar port near here.
The smugglers had attempted to fool the authorities by declaring the containers as carrying potatoes and green peas.
But the state Customs Department was suspicious and decided to check the contents in the nine containers following a risk assessment by its container inspection unit and public tip-off on May 7.
“We found various chicken parts in the containers worth RM2.75mil including RM550,000 in unpaid duty,” Sabah Customs assistant director-general Datuk Mohd Nasir Deraman said.
“We believe the smugglers not only wanted to evade paying the taxes but also wanted to avoid the hassle of the halal certification process for chicken meat to be allowed into the country,” he told a press conference yesterday.
“Chicken meat is among the food items that bring a lot of profit, so there are people who try to evade taxes.
“Besides that, there are many procedures to go through including for halal certification before they can bring in the goods,” he said.
