Melati Abu Bakar, the owner of a beauty salon, has been fined $21,800 for evading GST on $270,000 worth of beauty products. She may also be jailed for 14 weeks if lieu of the fine.
The above offense relates to the under declaration of goods imported into Singapore between January 2012 and April 2013. Investigations by the Singapore Customs had revealed that the 41 year old submitted bogus invoices on a total of 21 import permits, leading to a short payment of GST of $11,325.
Fraudulent evasion of GST on importation of goods to the Singapore Customs is a serious offense under the Customs Act. Anyone found guilty will be liable to a fine up to 20 times the amount of tax evaded and/or jail term of up to 2 years.
Source: Singapore Customs, 12 July 2013