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Sunday, January 06, 2008
Customs blames smuggling for income losses
CEBU CITY -- As reports of rampant smuggling in Cebu have prompted a House committee investigation, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) Port of Cebu reported a consistent decrease in the volume of imports and exports.
Undersecretary Antonio Villar Jr. of the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) blamed smuggling for the Port of Cebu's failure to meet its revenue collection targets.
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Port of Cebu Assistant Assessment Chief Florante Ricarte said that while they had a collection deficit for 2007 - P124 million as earlier reported - this can be attributed to the rising value of the peso against the dollar and a tremendous decrease in the volume of imports.
Import volume stood at 238,754.56 metric tons in June 2007, but dropped to 201,854.01 in July. It rose briefly to 212,380.82 in August, but dropped again to 170,653.95 in September and 128,085.44 in October. Volume stood at 173,208.97 in November.
But a customs official who refused to be named said it seems the BOC Port of Cebu is "window-dressing" its figures in the volume of imports, because these did not match records kept by the Cebu Port Authority (CPA) and Oriental Port and Allied Services Corp. (Opascor).
Opascor Corp. Planning chief Lu Ortega stated in his operations statistics report to Opascor president Tomas A. Riveral that the volume of containerized cargoes in Twenty Equivalent Unit (TEUs) grew by 19 percent in imports and six percent in exports for January-November 2007.
Opascor also recorded an increase in ship calls bring imported cargoes to Cebu, from 208 vessels in 2006 to 234 in 2007. Tramping increased from 102 vessels in 2006 to 111 in 2007.
CPA Deputy General Manager Dennis Villamor said that for 2007, the volume of bulk foreign cargo was 2.97 million metric tons, compared to the 2.36 million metric tons in 2006.
For break-bulk cargoes or shipments in cartons that are also considered loose cargoes, there were 320 million metric tons of foreign cargo in 2007 and 348 million metric tons in 2006.
For containerized cargo, Villamor said that the CPA recorded 140,000 TEUs or the so-called 20-footer container vans of foreign shipments in 2007 and 146,000 TEUs in 2006.
Lawyer Rey Umali, deputy commissioner for the collection monitoring group, said that he will also request copies of the records from CPA and Opascor, to verify if any discrepancy exists.
The Port of Cebu reportedly submitted to the customs collection monitoring group a report stating that of the total shipments transacted, 88 percent were not subject to duties.
For shipments covered by duties, Umali said, the consignee must pay outright in cash. Cargo is considered tax-free if imported by Duty-Free Philippines, locators of Mactan Economic Zone (MEZ), operators of customs-bonded warehouses, and exporters who import raw materials.
Although Umali did not comment on the high percentage of non-dutiable importations reported by the Port of Cebu, he said he is interested in comparing those records with that of CPA and Opascor. (EOB of Sun.Star Cebu)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star General Santos. (January 6, 2008 issue)
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