The strict and real enforcement of customs laws by new Customs Commissioner Rey Guerrero could be the long-awaited cure for the cancer of corruption at the Bureau of Customs (BOC).
This customs plague continues to cause enormous problems to the nation’s economy, and the government is losing over P200 billion in duties and taxes each year because of unabated smuggling at the ports. We all know that smuggling thrives because of corruption at BOC.
It is for this reason that we in the Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) fully support Commissioner Guerrero’s cleansing and reforms at the Bureau of Customs. Like the industry experts we have assigned at the BOC to help Customs officials in the determination of product standard compliance of imported goods, we are always ready to help Commissioner Guerrero in his all-out campaign against smuggling.
Smuggling is also creating big problems for the country’s industry sector. The smuggling of cheaper but lower-quality products, for instance, is unfairly competing with locally manufactured goods in the market.
The tightened scrutiny and inspection of shipments at the BOC,
including those that could get through the green lane easily without hitch, is also causing delays in the release of much-needed imported materials for the industry sector.
Thus, perhaps, the Bureau of Customs can consider allowing the conditional release of shipments that are subject to mandatory standard to help decongest the ports, by allowing the mandatory testing to be done at the importer’s warehouse, provided that a cash bond that would not be less than the value of the shipment would be raised by the importer.
This would enable the BOC to forfeit the bond should the importer sell the imported goods prior to its mandatory testing, among other violations the importation may have incurred in the process.
This way, the continuous flow of much-needed imported raw materials and/or semi-finished products for the industry sector will not be hampered, even as payment of appropriate duties and taxes for importations will be guaranteed and the safety of consumers also secured.
Therefore, allowing the conditional release of shipments, especially those that are subject to mandatory testing, will not only help secure consumer safety and revenue collection, but more importantly, it will also help in decongesting the ports.
And, by the way, maybe Commissioner Guerrero can have all the empty container vans now parked at various port operators in the country inventoried. Thousands of them could have been parked in the country for more than 90 days already.
Under the law, empty container vans of international shipping lines that remain in the country for more than 90 days should be taxed. Otherwise, shipping companies must re-export their empty container vans to avoid paying taxes.
But there are serious allegations that, while the government is not able to collect the duties and taxes on some overstaying empty container vans in the country, some government officials, and maybe even officials of private port operators, are allegedly receiving grease money from shipping companies for them to turn a blind eye on the overstaying container vans parked in the country.