Case and status
Research fellow Bai Jiaming received S$7,000 fines for arranging a tourist’s refund and receiving refunded goods back. He bought a S$23,600 ring, but as someone working in Singapore did not qualify for the tourist refund.
Facts, amounts and outcome
Bai and colleague Zhang Baicheng arranged for Zhang Yaoqun to claim S$1,791.87 on a ring and handbag. After airport approval the goods were handed to Bai, who tried to leave the transit area and was stopped by ICA. His one-way Jakarta ticket was used to enter the departure area. The father and son’s cases were still pending at this release date. Returning goods to a local recipient undermined the required export arrangement.
Tourist-refund conditions and examples
The release treats the scheme as a refund for an eligible tourist’s actual purchases taken out of Singapore. Buying another customer’s receipt, using someone else’s passport or returning refunded goods to a local person can defeat those conditions and create offences. Retailers and helpers can also face action for their participation. The eTRS tickets, airport procedures and examples in older releases describe the system at publication; current operational details remain on IRAS’ official guidance.
Official source
This report is independently written from the IRAS release dated above. Case status, policy announcements and historical figures refer to that release.
Read the complete IRAS release ↗