Peddlers hawk duty-unpaid cigarettes, chewing tobacco in Mandai

Peddlers of duty-unpaid cigarettes and chewing tobacco are pushing their trade from dimly lit areas around workers’ dormitories to park connectors around Sungei Kadut and Mandai Road.

Residents living nearby in Marsiling and Choa Chu Kang said they have spotted motorcyclists riding along the park connectors to known spots where the illegal traders are hiding.

The peddlers will come out of their hiding spots and sell the contraband items in an exchange that lasts less than two minutes.

It comes amid a spike in seizures, with the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) and Singapore Customs confiscating 3.22 million packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes in 2023, compared with 2.16 million packets in 2022, and 1.95 million packets in 2021.

The authorities also seized 7,700kg of chewing tobacco in 2023, compared with 4,500kg of the illicit item in 2022 and 1,500kg in 2021.

Ms Adeline Tay, who often jogs along the park connector in Mandai Road in the evenings, said she has seen the suspicious trade herself.

“Motorists often stop suddenly on the roads or ride their motorcycles on the jogging path to quickly buy the (contraband) cigarettes.

“When motorcycles come onto the jogging path, we have to quickly get out of their way to avoid getting hurt,” added Ms Tay, 32.

Triathlete B.C. Chung, who cycles on Mandai Road four times a week, said he often sees men in their 20s loitering in the area.

The 53-year-old resident of Choa Chua Kang added: “Their presence at night is suspicious. They leave their trash behind, and they urinate at the sides of the jogging path.”

The Straits Times accompanied HSA officers in an operation on Sept 29, 2024, when two men were caught with 20 sachets of chewing tobacco in Sungei Kadut Avenue.

ST had seen one of them hawking chewing tobacco in the area earlier in August after a tip-off by a resident.

Singapore Customs said it had conducted enforcement operations in the vicinity of Sungei Kadut Avenue and Mandai Road from May to August 2024.

It resulted in the arrest of four peddlers and the seizure of more than 790 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes.

Checks by ST showed that contraband cigarettes cost half the price of legal cigarettes, which are sold for about $16 a packet at coffee shops.

Keat Hong MP Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim said the sale of contraband cigarettes in public areas is less common than the peddling of vaping products in Housing Board corridors and staircases.

“Contraband such as duty-unpaid cigarettes and e-cigarettes have to be stamped out if we wish to protect the lifespan and health span of Singaporeans, and protect non-smokers from the adverse effects of passive smoking,” he added.

In Dec 21, 2023, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority foiled an attempt to smuggle 13,000 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes into Singapore through Tuas Checkpoint, the largest such haul that year.

Euromonitor International estimates that 372.2 billion cigarettes per year are smuggled, manufactured illegally or counterfeited, robbing governments of about US$40 billion ($51.8 billion) each year in taxes.

The Tobacco Association (Singapore) told ST it has observed a “significant shrink” in the legitimate cigarette industry volume since the 15 per cent excise increase in February 2023.

The drop in sales could be attributed to “downtrading by consumers to cheaper alternatives that include illicit cigarettes and vaping products”, which are available on digital platforms such as Telegram and WeChat.

A spokesman for the association said: “Proactive enforcement actions by the authorities over the past year to curb illicit trade in contraband cigarettes and illicit vaping products have been commendable.

“However, we have been seeing a worrying trend of increasing duty-unpaid cigarettes being distributed and sold in dormitories for foreign workers.”

Singapore Customs said buying, selling, conveying, delivering, storing, keeping, having in possession or dealing with duty-unpaid goods are serious offences.

Offenders can be fined up to 40 times the amount of duty and GST evaded and/or jailed for up to six years.