The Hong Kong government says it has arrested 2299 mainlanders suspected of parallel trading and conducted 271 investigations after complaints by North District residents.
Other data and details about parallel trading were revealed in the Legislative Council yesterday by Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok in a written reply to a question by member Tang Ka-piu. He said that some North District residents had advised him that despite the government stepping up efforts to combat parallel trading activities, these were still rampant and causing a nuisance.
Lai Tung-kwok said the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government attached great importance to the long-term and healthy development of Hong Kong’s tourism industry, and tried to minimise any inconvenience to local residents.
“After we reflected our views to the central government regarding mainland visitors, it replaced ‘multiple-entry’ individual visit endorsements for Shenzhen residents with a one-trip-per-week cap. We believe that measure can effectively deter the activities of mainland professional parallel traders who visit Hong Kong multiple times within a week or even one day.”
Since the measure came into force about a year ago, mainland visitor arrivals had declined, especially same-day visitors.
“Since September 2012, law-enforcement agencies have been mounting large-scale joint operations to suppress parallel trading activities and to improve order at railway stations and boundary control points.
“The Customs & Excise Department (C&ED) has pinpointed suspected parallel-goods storage and packing establishments, and passed intelligence to the Immigration Department (ImmD) and police.”
The secretary also said the C&ED had been exchanging intelligence and planning dedicated operations with Shenzhen authorities.
“In the past three years, the two sides have cracked down on 1017 smuggling cases involving parallel traders, seizing goods with a total value of about HK$15.80 million (US$2 million). The C&ED also detected 13,508 cases of attempting to export unlicensed powdered formula, involving the arrest of 7790 mainland visitors, of which 7309 were prosecuted, and 196,000kg of powdered formula was seized.”
Regarding public order, police officers every day at the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line control point and its neighbouring areas had been managing crowds and made special arrangements for traffic.
“The Immigration Department and police have held 271 joint operations in the past three years, arresting 2299 mainland visitors suspected of contravening conditions of stay by being involved in parallel trading activities.”
Lai Tung-kwok also said the ImmD had established a “watch list” of suspected parallel traders, with more than 20,200 names. More than 47,000 entries were refused in the past three years because of suspected involvement in parallel trading.
Also, the police had stepped up enforcement actions against such issues as obstruction and nuisance in public places caused by parallel traders and shops, issuing 453 summonses in the past three years.
Police had also targeted illegal conduct involving taxis in North District. Traffic summonses were issued against 62 drivers last year for carriage of goods on a taxi, soliciting and refusing to accept a hire.