Carrying Value Across the Border: The Obligation Exists, the Threshold Does Not Yet

Chapter 11 of the Anti-Money Laundering Law 2026 has attracted almost no attention. It runs to six sections and creates a declaration regime at the border that reaches well beyond cash.

For anyone who travels with gemstones, gold or bearer instruments, or who sends them by courier or vehicle, it is the part of the Law most likely to be encountered first.

What has to be declared

Section 48 requires a formal declaration to the Customs Department where the value reaches or exceeds a prescribed amount. Four categories of thing are caught, and the section applies in both directions.

Two features of that drafting deserve attention.

The obligation is not confined to travellers. Arranging for any of these items to be carried by vehicle or sent by post triggers the same duty. A consignment despatched by courier is caught in the same terms as a suitcase.

Bearer negotiable instruments are defined at section 3(w) and are broader than most people assume. The definition covers travellers cheques, cheques, promissory notes, money orders and similar instruments where they are in bearer form, endorsed without restriction, made out to a fictitious payee, or otherwise transferable on delivery. It also expressly covers instruments that are signed but where the payee has been left blank.

The number has not been set

This is the practical point, and it is the reason the chapter has been overlooked.

Section 47 provides that the value at which declaration becomes compulsory is to be determined by the Central Body, with its agreement, in consultation with the Ministry of Finance and Revenue and the Central Bank of Myanmar. The Law itself does not state a figure.

That is not a reason to wait. When the determination is made it will take effect on its own terms, and there is nothing in Chapter 11 that provides for a transition period or a grace period. A business whose procedures are built after the figure is announced will be building them while already exposed.

The sensible course is to establish the recording and declaration procedure now, and to insert the figure when it appears.

What Customs may do

Section 49 requires the Customs Department to seize money, bearer negotiable instruments, precious gemstones or metals where the declaration required by section 48 has not been made, or where a false declaration has been given. Where the matter is suspected of connection to money laundering or a related offence, section 49(b) requires Customs to investigate under the Law.

Section 50 sets out the accompanying powers. Customs may exercise control over persons, their baggage, their means of transport and postal despatch, and containers. Where a false declaration or a failure to declare is found, or where money laundering or terrorist financing is suspected, section 50(b) permits Customs to require and obtain further information about the original source of ownership of the items, and to question the purpose for which they are to be used.

Section 51 requires the information obtained to be passed to the Financial Intelligence Unit and to the Central Bank of Myanmar, and permits it to be shared with other government departments. Section 52 requires Customs to retain declaration records, and records of the related inspection and seizure, for not less than five years, and to produce them on request.

The penalty

Section 65 applies to a failure to comply with section 48, to a false declaration in respect of money or negotiable instruments, and to the concealment of information that a Customs officer or other authority requires to be declared.

There is a point in the drafting of that final limb worth noting. Section 49 requires seizure of all four categories, including gemstones and metals. The confiscation sentence in section 65, however, refers to the money and the bearer negotiable instruments connected with the offence. Whether gemstones and metals fall to be confiscated under section 65, or are dealt with under the general confiscation power in section 70 following conviction, is a question the text leaves open.

It is not a distinction to rely on. Section 70 requires the court, on conviction under any provision of the Law, to order confiscation to the State of the proceeds, the instrumentalities and all evidential property.

A second offence that is easy to trigger

Where an investigation is on foot and restraint orders or directions have been issued in respect of money or property, section 66 makes failure to comply an offence in its own right, carrying six months to two years imprisonment, or a fine of up to MMK 200 million, or both, and up to MMK 300 million for a company.

What to put in place now

None of the following depends on the threshold being known.

1. A record of what leaves and enters, by whom, and in what form. Not for Customs, but so that the business can answer the question when it is asked.
2. A rule that nobody travels with company stock, and no consignment is despatched, without the movement being logged and approved beforehand.
3. Clarity on who is responsible. Section 65 exposes the individual as well as the company, and the individual will be the person carrying the goods.
4. A standing instruction to check whether the Central Body has issued the section 47 determination. Once it appears, the figure needs to be in the procedure the same week.

Who this reaches

Dealers in gemstones and precious metals, jewellery exporters, and anyone whose business involves moving high-value goods across a border. It also reaches businesses that do not think of themselves as exporters at all: a company sending stones abroad for valuation, or a director carrying instruments to a meeting.

The obligation is not yet operative for want of a figure. Everything else about it is already in force.

Source: Anti-Money Laundering Law 2026 (National Defence and Security Council Law No. 16/2026), Chapter 11, sections 47 to 52, and sections 3(w), 65, 66 and 70, as published in Myanmar by the Financial Regulatory Department, Ministry of Finance and Revenue.

This note is general information and not legal advice. ILPC advises businesses on anti-money laundering and cross-border compliance in Myanmar. Contact info@ilpcmm.com.