SINGAPORE - Nearly 70,000 cans of duty-unpaid beer - declared as fruit punch - were uncovered by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) on Monday (Feb 19).

In a Facebook post on Thursday, ICA said that officers detected the 69,048 cans of duty-unpaid beer in a consignment while it was passing through the Pasir Panjang Scanning Station.

The unpaid duty and goods and services tax (GST) amounted to $86,580 and $20,140 respectively.

The Singapore Customs is investigating the case, the post said.

ICA added that such a method of concealment poses a cause for concern, "as it may be used by people with ill intent to smuggle security items into Singapore".

Latest figures from ICA released earlier this month showed a rise in contraband smuggling, with 90,327 cases last year, or a daily average of 247 attempts.

This was up 2.6 per cent from the 88,050 the previous year. There were 95,677 such cases in 2015.

Some cases thwarted by ICA officers at checkpoints include attempts to smuggle people, drugs, weapons, explosives and other contraband items.

ICA also said that the use of heavy commercial vehicles to smuggle contraband remains a trending concern.