KUALA LUMPUR: Retail and Trade Brands Advocacy (RTBA), an international non-governmental organisation safeguarding supply chains and brands from criminal conduct, applauds the police for invoking the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) against those involved in human trafficking.
“The police have made the right decision and the natural step forward is to include all illicit trade perpetrators, be they traffickers in drugs, illegal tobacco and alcohol, counterfeit medical and beauty products or endangered wildlife, into the Sosma category,” RTBA’s Malaysia Chapter Managing Director Datuk Fazli Nordin said today.
Sosma is a law that provides special measures relating to security offences to maintain public order and security.
“The law has been created to uphold national security by enabling Malaysian enforcement agencies to take quick and effective action against elements that pose a clear and present danger to our nation,” said Fazli, who is also a lawyer.
“The proliferation of Illicit trade in Malaysia, which forms a large part of the RM300 billion shadow economy, represents a legitimate threat to economic prosperity, public safety, environment and national security.
“Our country not only loses billions of ringgit in potential tax revenue, this black market also facilitates corruption, funds organised crime and terrorism as well as takes away growth opportunities from legitimate businesses.”
According to the RTBA report – Illicit Tobacco in the Asia-Pacific Region: Causes and Solutions’ (April 2020) – illicit trade in tobacco in Malaysia alone have cost the Government RM5 billion in uncollected revenue each year.
“The report also found that the tobacco black market has many ‘hidden’ business operations that span from the production of illicit tobacco products to distribution, selling, purchase and possession; involving both direct and indirect participation of individual criminals and organised enterprises,” Fazli said.
“In addition, there are also large-scale operations that revolve around tax evasion schemes. These activities include counterfeiting, disguising product origins, failing to declare local production numbers, using bogus tax stamps, and smuggling of illicit products across borders.”
Clearly the opaque and subversive eco-system that the illicit trade perpetrators thrive in remains a danger to our nation’s socio-economic well-being as well as a threat to the rule of law, he said.
“The upcoming International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illegal Trafficking (26 June) offers an opportune time for both policymakers and authorities to stop all forms of illicit trade with strict laws and counter-measures like Sosma,” Fazli added.
