Man fined $1.5m for evading duty, GST on 427 imported vehicles

A 44-year-old man involved in various vehicle businesses has been fined $1.5 million for fraudulent evasion of duty and goods and services tax (GST) on 427 motor vehicles imported into Singapore between January 2019 and October 2020.

- Samuel Devaraj

Jason Liang Huan Shuo, a Singaporean, was also sentenced to five weeks' jail on Dec 2 for underpaying the additional registration fee - the main tax imposed during the registration of the vehicles - the Singapore Customs and Land Transport Authority (LTA) said in a statement.

Liang, the sole proprietor of JDM Automobile and a partner at Autogallery@JDM, pleaded guilty to three charges, two of which were under the Customs Act for fraudulent evasion of duty amounting to about $245,674 for the import of the motor vehicles.

The third charge was for giving incorrect information under the Road Traffic Act in relation to the value of 219 motor vehicles.

Three other similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.