Singapore legislation
Section 11
Section 11
Payment of customs duty, etc., short paid or erroneously refunded
(1)
Whenever —
through inadvertence, error, collusion or misconstruction on the part of any Federal officer of customs, or through misstatement as to value, quantity or description by any person, or for any other reason, the whole or any part of any customs duty or other charges payable under this Act has not been paid; or
the whole or any part of such customs duty or other charges, after having been paid, has been, owing to any cause, erroneously refunded,the person liable to pay such customs duty or other charges or the person to whom such refund has erroneously been made, as the case may be, shall pay the deficiency or repay the amount paid to him in excess, on demand being made within 12 months from the date on which customs duty was payable or deficient customs duty was paid or the refund was made, as the case may be, and without prejudice to any other remedy for the recovery of the amount due, any dutiable goods belonging to that person which may be in any collection station may be detained until the customs duty or deficiency is paid or the refund is repaid, as the case may be.
(2)
When any goods have been detained in accordance with subsection (1), the Collector may after giving not less than 14 days’ notice in writing to the owner (if the name and address of the owner are known to him), or after giving not less than 14 days’ notice in the Gazette (if the name and address of the owner are not known to him) sell the goods.
(3)
The proceeds of the sale of any such goods shall be applied to the payment of the charges that have been occasioned by the sale and of the customs duty and other charges leviable in accordance with subsection (1), and the surplus, if any, shall be paid to the owner of such goods, and if the owner cannot be found within one month of the sale, the surplus shall be paid to the general revenue of Malaysia.
(4)
If at the sale of any such goods no sufficient bid is forthcoming to satisfy the customs duty and charges which are due in respect of the goods, the goods shall be forfeited to the government of Malaysia and shall be disposed of in such manner as the Collector may direct.