THE House Committee on Ways and Means on Wednesday disclosed that the government has collected a total of P2.4 billion from 2017 to 2019 from more than a hundred big corporations and multinational companies called out by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) for technical smuggling after a post audit.
In an interview, Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, the panel chairman, described the technical smuggling as “corporate corruption.” “These companies are blatantly cheating the government,” Salceda said.
Citing BOC post audit data, Salceda said these smuggling instances happened in the “super green lane” of the Customs bureau. Big companies applied for SGL accreditation for faster processing of imported cargo.
According to Salceda, SGL-accredited firms do not need to undergo documentary and x-ray inspection for each shipment.
“All the 16,000 accredited do not to need undergo inspection under super green lane and it turns out that they are doing technical smuggling. They do not pay the BOC properly, so I recommended to the BOC to review the guidlines for SGL,” he added.
The lawmaker said the Ways and Means Committee will study if these multinational companies violated the Foreign Corrupt Business Practices Act both of the US and EU.
“Payment does not excuse these big and multinational companies [from our legal actions]. We are definitely studying legal action to ensure other importers are not into it,” he said.
Earlier, Salceda expresed dismay over the Customs’ collection shortfall as its revenue collection is P35.7 billion below 2019 target in the first 10 months.
In particular, Salceda asked BOC to exercise greater surveillance at the Port of Manila with the most dismal deficit at P21 billion—or 25-percent below target of P85.3 billion—and the Manila International Container Port at P20 billion, or 13.1-percent below target of P158.6 billion.
Based on BOC’s report, the Port of Batangas’s collection is 7.1 percent lower than the P136.7-billion target, Port of Cebu’s collection is 6.6-percent below the target of P28.3 billion and Port of Davao is 9.8 percent below the P25.9-billion target.
With this, Salceda said the committee expressed displeasure over the BOC deficit and required the District Collectors of the major ports—Davao, Manila, Manila International Container Port or MICP, Batangas and Cebu—to explain their respective collections before the panel.