TRADERS in Langkawi, Kedah, are still upset over the implementation of the 2016 Excise Duties Order which limits the sale of duty-free liquor and cigarettes to visitors.
Among their main grouses are the drop in sales, increase in cost and delay in transactions.
Store supervisor Agnes Tan Wek Ling, 46, who runs Eastern Native Duty Free in Kuah town said that after the ruling was introduced in Nov 2016, her sales dropped.
“For over 20 years, our store was bustling with customers shopping for liquor and cigarettes but the new ruling scared them away.
“We are also burdened with the troublesome need to record the customer’s MyKad or passport details for each transaction into the computer,” she said recently.
The Excise Duties Order limits each customer to three cartons of cigarettes, five litres of liquor and three crates of beer per month.
Tan said if a customer reached the monthly limit, the online system would not allow the sale.
As the limit was imposed by the previous Government, Tan hopes that the new Government would remove the ruling to help bring back the brisk business they had.
There are about 200 duty-free stores in Langkawi.
Australian engineer Mel McLaughlin, 42, who works in Langkawi, said the ruling was not only troublesome but “practically useless” because there were loopholes.
“I drink more than a bottle weekly and up to six or seven bottles monthly when I have friends visiting,” he pointed out.
Mel said many Langkawi residents would simply get around the limit ruling by “borrowing” their friends’ identities when they use up their limit.
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