On-the-spot RM100 fine

Star: PUTRAJAYA: Revellers who defy the ban on firecrackers during Chinese New Year will not only face action by the police, but Customs officers as well.
This Chinese New Year period, about 2,000 Customs enforcement officers will be on patrol around the country.
Anyone caught letting off fireworks will be fined RM100 on-the-spot. And if the perpetrator is a child, the parents will be liable.
“This is the first year we are holding such an operation,” Customs preventive unit director Mohamed Adnan Ariffin told newsmen yesterday.
Mohamed Adnan said that the mere threat of a fine for letting of firecrackers was no deterrent to revellers who continued to flout the law. As such, the approach this time is to go to the ground and catch them in the act.
Firecrackers are on the schedule of prohibited items under the Customs Act. The only permissible items are “pop-pop” firecrackers and sparklers.
Between June and October last year, Customs seized 120 tonnes of firecrackers worth RM5mil.