Time for the Summer Holidays?

Malaysians really know how to enjoy the good life.
Which other country is so generous to provide overseas junkets to government officials to check on the prices of goods?

Let us hope that today’s report on Customs officers visiting car manufacturers to check on prices is not a precedent for other ministries to follow suit. Maybe the agricultural officers will want to visit NZ and Australia to check on milk and butter production costs?


One flaw with visiting car assembly plants is that most AP holders probably do not deal directly with the manufacturers but with a master distributor for the country. Also car manufacturers will not want to entertain hundreds of officials from different countries snooping in their plants.

It seems to be a sheer waste of taxpayers’ funds for these study tours when much information on car prices can be obtained even through the Net.

I googled “UK Car Exporters” and received 735,000 hits. Some of these sites provide price data for export tax free, CIF.

The other resource that we can make use of is that Malaysia has embassies in Europe and Japan. Can we not ask the trade official there to get provide information that is readily available in car magazines?

Such data can provide a firm basis for establishing the proper evaluation when importers try to under-declare. The tax officer has the final decision on the values.

We know the Customs Department like the Income Tax Department collect obscene amounts of revenue but this cannot justify spending monies on such overseas junkets.

Surely our Customs department can operate more effectively than just wanting to get a nice paid vacation?

photo:http://202.184.114.102/msiacommerce/infrastructure/images/masplane.jpg