2025年1月8日，新加坡国会三读通过了《海关（修正）法案》，旨在加强对逃税及相关违法行为的监管与处罚力度。新加坡交通部长兼财政部第二部长徐芳达在国会为法案提出二读时强调，此次修法将提高关税局的监管和执法行动效率，并增强对相关犯罪的威慑力。
以下内容为新加坡眼根据国会英文资料翻译整理：
第二读动议已经宣读。
议长： 请财政部第二部长陈述。
财政部第二部长徐芳达先生：议长先生，我提议，“该法案现在进行二读。”
议长先生，财政部和新加坡关税局会定期审查《海关法》，以确保其内容保持最新，并符合政策意图。《海关法》上次修订是在2018年。自那时起，我们又进行了一次审查，并建议在以下两方面对该法案进行进一步修订。
第一类修订旨在提高新加坡关税局监管和执法工作的效率。第二类修订将引入新的犯罪条款，并加强对特定违法行为的处罚。这些修订将使新加坡关税局能够更有效地履行其促进贸易和保护收入的职责，同时确保对违法者具有震慑作用。
议长先生，第一类修订将提升新加坡关税局的执法效能。首先，授权辅警行使搜查、逮捕和扣押权力。
目前，只有直接受雇于新加坡关税局的官员可以行使这些权力。然而，新加坡关税局也聘请了辅助警察（APOs）来协助其执法工作。修订后，将允许新加坡关税局局长授权APOs行使这些权力，以便更高效地履行职责。
这一做法与其他公共机构（如卫生科学局、陆路交通管理局和国家环境局）一致，这些机构均可根据相关法律授权APOs行使类似权力。
第二，加强对保税仓库的管理。修订将赋予新加坡关税局法律权力，要求许可证持有人在许可证到期或被吊销前清空保税仓库中的所有应税商品。
目前，保税仓库计划允许持证公司将进口的应税商品存储在指定仓库中，并暂缓缴纳消费税（GST）。但现行法律并未赋予新加坡关税局强制执行清空仓库的权力。修订后，如果持证公司未能清空仓库，新加坡关税局将有权移除并处理仓库中的所有应税商品，并收回因此产生的费用。
第三，扩展搜查权力。修订后，海关官员将被授权对涉嫌违反《海关法》的个人随身物品进行搜查。现行法律仅允许官员在以下三种情况搜查个人：当事人抵达新加坡时、涉嫌行贿时，或已因违反《海关法》被逮捕时。然而，这些限制无法满足在内陆执法行动中的实际需要。例如，官员可能接到举报称有人在某地出售未缴税香烟，但现行条件无法授权搜查此类嫌疑人。修订后，官员将能在必要时进行搜查，以确认是否存在违法行为，而无需立即进行逮捕。
第四，授权扣押相关设备和资金。修订将赋予海关官员扣押与违法行为相关的电子设备（如电脑、手机）和现金的权力，这些物品可能成为起诉违法者的重要证据。
议长先生，第二类修订将引入新犯罪条款及加强处罚。首先，引入协助违法行为的罪行。修订将新增罪行，对那些允许其场所或车辆被用于协助《海关法》违法行为的人进行处罚。此举旨在更有效地遏制个人协助违法行为，例如允许犯罪团伙利用其场所或车辆存储或运输未缴税商品。除非这些个人能够证明已采取合理注意义务，否则新加坡关税局将能够对其采取法律行动。
第二，新增妨碍调查的罪行。修订后，任何篡改、隐藏、掩盖或销毁账簿、文件或其他记录以妨碍调查的行为将成为《海关法》下的犯罪行为。此前，这类行为属于《刑法》的管辖范围，新加坡关税局需要将案件转交给警方处理。修订后，新加坡关税局将能够直接调查并处理此类案件。
第三，加重处罚。修订将提高某些罪行的罚款金额，例如，对于无法确定税额的逃税案件，最高罚款将从5000新元提高到1万新元。此外，对于涉及欺诈性逃税或非法持有未缴税商品等罪行，法院将可在现有罚款的基础上追加监禁处罚。
议长先生，总而言之，这些修订将提高新加坡关税局的执法能力和效率，同时加强对违法行为的震慑力，从而进一步巩固新加坡作为可信赖贸易枢纽的地位。
议长： 是否有任何问题？（无人提出问题。）
问题提出并获得一致通过。法案随即进入委员会审议阶段，并获得通过。法案经修订后进行了三读，并最终通过。
议长： 议案通过。
法律
以下是英文质询内容：
CUSTOMS (AMENDMENT) BILL
Order for Second Reading read.
Mr Speaker: Second Minister for Finance.
9.41 pm
The Second Minister for Finance (Mr Chee Hong Tat): Mr Speaker, I move, “that the Bill be now read a Second time.”
Sir, the Ministry of Finance and Singapore Customs regularly review the Customs Act to ensure that it remains up to date and in line with policy intent. The Customs Act was last amended in 2018. Since then, we have carried out another review and propose further amendments to the Act in two areas.
The first set of amendments seeks to improve the effectiveness of Singapore Customs’ regulatory and enforcement operations. The Second will introduce new offence provisions and enhance the penalties for specified offences. These amendments will enable Singapore Customs to more effectively carry out its mandate of trade facilitation and revenue protection and ensure that bad actors are deterred from committing offences under the Customs Act.
Mr Speaker, the first set of amendments will grant additional powers to Singapore Customs to improve their operational effectiveness. First, we will give the Director-General of Singapore Customs the power to authorise auxiliary Police officers, or APOs, to exercise powers of search, arrest and seizure.
Today, only officers who are directly employed by Singapore Customs can exercise these powers. However, Singapore Customs also engages APOs to support its enforcement operations, and APOs will need to be granted these powers to perform their duties effectively.
And this is in line with the practice in other public agencies, such as the Health Sciences Authority, the Land Transport Authority, and the National Environment Agency, who are able to appoint APOs as authorised officers under their respective legislation to exercise similar powers.
Second, we will grant Singapore Customs the legal power to require licensees to remove all dutiable goods from licensed warehouses before the expiry or withdrawal of their licences.
Today, the Licensed warehouse scheme allows licensed companies to store imported dutiable goods in a designated premise known as a Licensed Warehouse, with duty and the Goods and Services Tax on these goods suspended. To qualify for this scheme, companies must meet requirements including having good compliance records and ensuring the security of the dutiable goods.
In the absence of any legislative lever today, Singapore Customs has no legal powers to compel these companies to remove their goods when the company’s license expires or is withdrawn. Hence, the amendment will make it a requirement for licensees to remove all dutiable goods from the warehouse even before the expiry or the withdrawal of their licence, failing which, Singapore Customs will have the legal powers to remove and dispose of all dutiable goods from the warehouse, and recover any costs incurred for the removal and disposal of these goods.
Third, we will provide officers of customs with the power to stop and conduct searches on the belongings of a person that is committing or is reasonably suspected to have committed an offence under the Customs Act.
Today, officers of customs can only exercise the power of search on persons under three narrowly prescribed conditions: one, when a person is arriving in Singapore; two, when a person is suspected to be in possession of a bribe; and three, when a person has been arrested for an offence under the Customs Act.
