Section 2

released for home consumption;

exported; or

placed under another customs procedure;

“customs control” means measures applied by officers of customs before the release of goods to ensure compliance with this Act;

“customs duty” means any import duty, export duty, surtax, surcharge or cess imposed by or under this Act, any countervailing duty or anti-dumping duty imposed by or under the Countervailing and Anti-Dumping Duties Act 1993 [Act 504], any safeguard duty imposed by or under the Safeguards Act 2006 [Act 657] and includes any royalty payable in lieu of an export duty under any written law, or a contract, lease or agreement to which the Federal Government or the

Government of any State is a party or to which such Government has consented;

“customs office” means the customs administrative unit responsible for the performance of the functions and duties relating to customs, and

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the premises used, or other places approved, licensed or prescribed, for that purpose under this Act;

“customs port” means any port prescribed to be a customs port;

“customs ruling” means the customs ruling made by the Director

General under section 10B;

“customs warehouse” means a warehouse or other place established by the Minister under subsection 63(1) for the deposit of dutiable goods;

“declaration of origin” means an appropriate statement as to the origin of the goods in connection with their importation or exportation by the importer, producer or exporter on the commercial invoice or any documents relating to the goods;

“denatured” means effectually rendered unfit for human consumption to the satisfaction of the Director General;

“Director General” means the Director General of Customs and

Excise appointed under subsection 3(1);

“document” has the meaning assigned thereto in section 3 of the

Evidence Act 1950;

“dutiable goods” means all goods subject to the payment of customs duty and on which such duty has not yet been paid;

“duty free shop” means any place licensed for the warehousing and sale of dutiable goods free of duty under section 65D;

“electronic data interchange” means the transfer, from computer to computer, of commercial and administrative transactions using an agreed message standard to structure the data pertaining to a transaction;

“export” means to take or cause to be taken out of Malaysia, by land, sea, air, or by any other means or to place any goods in a conveyance

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for the purpose of such goods being taken out of Malaysia by land, sea, air, or by any other means;

“export by air” includes exportation in any manner or by any means by air;

“export by road” includes exportation in any manner or by any means by land, and includes, in particular, exportation through the land by means of a pipeline;

“export by sea” includes exportation in any manner or by any means by sea, and includes, in particular, exportation through the sea by means of a pipeline;

“exporter” includes any person by whom any goods (including goods transferred from an importing aircraft or ship) are exported from

Malaysia or supplied for use as aircraft’s or ship’s stores, and also the owner, or any person acting on his behalf, and any person who for customs purposes signs any document relating to goods exported or intended for exportation or supplied or intended for supply as aircraft’s or ship’s stores as aforesaid;

“Financial Authority” in relation to Sabah and Sarawak means any person appointed by the Minister, by notification in the appropriate

Gazette, to exercise under the directions of the Minister any function which the Minister is empowered or required by this Act to exercise in

Sabah or Sarawak;

“goods” includes animals, birds, fish, plants, currency and bearer negotiable instruments and any other kinds of movable property;

“hover” in the case of a vessel in territorial waters means to linger without apparent lawful purpose, whether such vessel be moving or not moving;

“import” means to bring or cause to be brought into Malaysia, by land, sea or air or by any other means;

“import by air” includes importation in any manner or by any means by air;

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“import by road” includes importation in any manner or by any means by land, and includes, in particular, importation through the land by means of a pipeline;

“import by sea” includes importation in any manner or by any means by sea, and includes, in particular, importation through the sea by means of a pipeline;

“importer” includes—

any owner or other person for the time being possessed of or beneficially interested in any goods at and from the time of importation thereof until such goods are duly removed from customs control; and

in relation to goods imported by means of a pipeline, the owner of the pipeline;

“inland clearance depot” means a common-user inland facility equipped with fixed installations and offering services for handling and temporary storage of any kind of goods carried by land and placed under customs control;

“intoxicating liquor” includes any alcohol, or any liquid containing more than 1.14 per centum volume over volume of alcohol, which is fit or intended to be or which can by any means be converted for use as a beverage;

“issuing authority” means a body or government agency appointed under section 99C;

“Joint Development Area” has the meaning assigned thereto in section 2 of the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Authority Act 1990;

“legal landing place” means any place which has been prescribed as a legal place for the landing and shipping of goods;

“licensed carrier” means a person approved by the Director General to operate vehicles by road for the carriage of any goods in transit or any dutiable goods under this Act or under the Excise Act 1976 [Act 176];

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“licensed warehouse” means a warehouse or other place licensed for the warehousing of dutiable goods under section 65;

“local craft” means any junk, tongkang, perahu, kumpit or other similar type of vessel, and any steam or motor vessel under seventy-five net registered tons;

“manufacture” means:

in the case of intoxicating liquors, distilling, brewing, fermenting, bottling of intoxicating liquor, and includes the addition of any substance (other than water) to any intoxicating liquor and the blending, compounding and varying of intoxicating liquors with intent that the compound so formed shall be sold for human consumption, but excluding any such compound prepared at the order of the purchaser, and for his immediate consumption;

in the case of tobacco, any process converting any raw or leaf tobacco into tobacco fit for smoking, snuffing or chewing, and includes the making of cigarettes from manufactured tobacco;

in relation to petroleum, the process of refining that include separation, conversion, purification, and blending of refinery streams or petrochemical streams; and

in other cases, the conversion by manual or mechanical means of organic or inorganic materials into a new product by changing the size, shape, composition, nature or quality of such materials and includes the assembly of parts into a piece of machinery or other products, but does not include the installation of machinery or equipment for the purpose of construction;

“master” means any person (except a pilot or harbour master) having for the time being control or charge of a vessel;

“Minister” means the Minister charged with the responsibility for finance;

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“non-preferential certificate of origin” means a specific document identifying the goods, in which the issuing authority empowered to issue such document certifies expressly that the goods to which the certificate relates originate in Malaysia;

“officer of customs” means—

the Director General;

any Deputy Director General of Customs and Excise appointed under subsection 3(1);

any Assistant Director General, Director, Deputy Director,

Senior Assistant Director and Assistant Director of

Customs and Excise appointed under subsection 3(1);

any Senior Superintendent, Superintendent, Chief Assistant

Superintendent, Senior Assistant Superintendent or

Assistant Superintendent of Customs and Excise appointed under subsection 3(4); and

any Chief Customs Officer, Senior Customs Officer or

Customs Officer appointed under section 4;

“origin of goods”—

in relation to preferential tariff treatment, means the country in which the goods were wholly obtained, produced or regarded as having been produced according to the applicable rules of origin adopted within the framework of international or regional agreements in force; and

in relation to non-preferential tariff treatment, means

Malaysia in which the goods were wholly obtained, produced or regarded as having been produced according to the rules adopted in Malaysia;

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“owner”—

in respect of goods, includes any person (other than an officer of customs acting in his official capacity) being or holding himself out to be the owner, importer, exporter, consignee, agent or person in possession of, or beneficially interested in, or having any control of, or power of disposition over, the goods; and

in respect of any aircraft, vessel or vehicle, includes the charterer, the hirer and any person acting as an agent for the owner or who receives freight or other charges payable in respect of the aircraft, vessel or vehicle;

“Peninsular Malaysia” has the meaning assigned thereto in section 3 of the Interpretation Acts 1948 and 1967 [Act 388], and includes the

Federal Territory.

“petroleum” means any mineral oil or relative hydrocarbon in its solid, liquid or gaseous form existing in its natural condition and includes casing head petroleum spirit, bituminous shales, other stratified deposits from which oil can be extracted commercially and petroleum products obtained from the process of manufacture;

“pilot of an aircraft” means every person having or taking command or charge of an aircraft;

“postal article” means a letter, postcard, newspaper, book, document, pamphlet, pattern or sample packet, parcel, package or any other article or thing that can be transmitted, collected or delivered by post;

“preferential certificate of origin” means a specific document identifying the goods, in which the issuing authority empowered to issue such document certifies expressly that the goods to which the certificate relates originate in a specific country in accordance with the rules of origin adopted within the framework of international or regional agreements in force;

“preferential tariff treatment” means the rates of import duty published in the order made under section 11 applicable to originating

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goods of the exporting country in accordance with the relevant trade agreements;

“preventive vessel” means any vessel employed for the prevention of smuggling or for any other purpose relating to the customs;

“producer” means a person who engages in the production of goods which includes the growing, cultivating, raising, mining, harvesting, fishing, trapping, hunting, capturing, collecting, breeding, extracting, aquaculture, gathering, manufacturing, processing or assembling of the goods;

“prohibited goods” means goods the import or export of which is prohibited, either absolutely or conditionally by an order under section 31 and any subsidiary legislation made under this Act or by any other written law;

“proper officer of customs” means any officer of customs acting in the fulfilment of his duties under this Act, whether such duties are assigned to him specially or generally, or expressly or by implication;

“public ruling” means the public ruling made by the Director General under section 10F;

“release” in relation to goods, means the action by the proper officer of customs to allow goods which has completed customs clearance to be placed at the disposal of the owner of such goods;

“road” includes any prescribed land route;

“sea” includes inland waters;

“senior officer of customs” means—

the Director General;

any Deputy Director General of Customs and Excise appointed under subsection 3(1);

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any Assistant Director General, Director, Deputy Director,

Senior Assistant Director and Assistant Director of

Customs and Excise appointed under subsection 3(1);

any Senior Superintendent, Superintendent, Chief Assistant

Superintendent, Senior Assistant Superintendent or

Assistant Superintendent of Customs and Excise appointed under subsection 3(4);

any officer of customs invested with the powers of a senior officer of customs under subsection 3(5) or section 5; and

any police officer having the powers of a senior officer of customs by virtue of section 8;

“sufferance wharf” means any place other than an approved place of loading or unloading at which the senior officer of customs may, in his discretion, and under such conditions and in such manner as he may direct, either generally or in any particular case, allow any goods to be loaded or unloaded;

“surcharge” means any charge that is due and payable under subsection 17B(2);

“territorial waters” means the territorial waters of Malaysia;

“transit” means the movement of goods—

between two or more customs offices in Malaysia; or

from a customs office in any country to a customs office in

Malaysia (including goods on transhipment) for the sole purpose of being carried out to another country;

“transhipment” means—

transferring of goods from one vessel or aircraft to another vessel or aircraft; or

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unloading of goods from a vessel or aircraft and depositing such goods in a customs or licensed warehouse or in a warehouse or other place approved by the Director General, for the purpose of shipment out of Malaysia on that other vessel or aircraft within the jurisdictional area of the same customs office relating to the importation and exportation;

“uncustomed goods” means goods in respect of which a breach of the provisions of this Act or of any subsidiary legislation made thereunder has been committed;

“value”—

in relation to imported goods, means customs value as determined under the regulations made under subsection 142(35B); and

in relation to goods to be exported, means the price which an exporter would receive for the goods calculated to the stage where such goods are released by Customs at the place of export;

For the purposes of this Act, a free zone shall be deemed to be a place outside a principal customs area, and the provisions of section 31 and Parts IVA, V, VI and VII of this Act shall apply to a free zone.

For the purposes of subsection (1A)—

For the purpose of this Act, goods shall be deemed to be under customs control whilst they are deposited or held in any customs or licensed warehouse, warehouse or other place approved by the

Director General, petroleum supply base, post office, or in any conveyance from which they may not be removed except with the permission of the proper officer of customs.