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Customs' best luxury cars to go under the hammer By Hamidah Atan from NST 23 January, 2007 PUTRAJAYA: There will be no rush for cheap mobile phones at this year’s Customs Day to be held at its Federal Territory complex in Kelana Jaya on Friday. Not a single seized handphone is going up for sale, nor mountain bikes, batik cloth, computers or laptops, as was the case last year. Instead, Customs director-general Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Abdul Hamid said a fleet of luxury cars, including Mercedes Benzes, BMWs and Hondas, would be awaiting visitors. More than 100 such vehicles which had not hit the roads and categorised as "Customs’ best luxury cars" would be put up for auction. "Of course, the highest bidders will get to buy the cars. Bidding forms will be available to those interested," he told the New Straits Times. Abdul Rahman said every bidder would be treated the same, VIP or no VIP. "The auction will be done transparently according to procedure." He added the cars were seized for various Customs-related offences. "Buyers should have no worry because all these cars have already been cleared by our officers." The Customs Day, themed "Together Towards Excellence", is expected to be launched by Second Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop. Chaos was the order of the day when about 1,300 handphones of various brands were put up for sale during last year’s Customs Day held at its head office on Feb 14. The confiscated handphones, sold for between RM20 and RM50, were snapped up within minutes, amid plenty of pushing and shouting. More than 5,000 people jam-packed the office, some coming as early as 7am, for the sale of the handphones. The crowd turned unruly minutes after the handphone booth opened. Although there were many other booths nearby selling other seized items such as bicycles, rice, sugar and batik cloth, Customs officers had a tough time trying to control the crowd at the booth selling handphones. The 200 bicycles were sold for RM50 each on a first-come-first-served basis, while sugar was sold for RM1 per kilo, a bag of 10kg rice for RM5, and batik cloth for RM5 a piece. The Customs Department had issued a statement apologising for the inconvenience, saying such an overwhelming response had not been expected. Another interesting feature for this year’s Customs Day will be the display of a Naza Ria multi-purpose vehicle which has been modified at a cost of RM100,000 with state-of-the-art intelligence and tracking equipment. It also features satellite technology. Starting this year, 21 such vehicles will be used for enforcement purposes.
