Lick it or not

IF ONLY we can lick the collection leaks in the Bureau of Customs…

Well, the new customs commissioner, Angelito Alvarez, who this early got some bad press over his indiscretion in a game of golf, just barred what are known as “haoshiao”— those “fake” employees—at the BOC inspection areas.

From what I gathered, they served as conduits between BOC personnel (real ones) and customs brokers in releasing import shipments. We all know what happens in such transactions.

Still, getting rid of those scalawags may not be enough. Smuggling has become a huge protection racket under that administration.

The IMF estimated that uncollected VAT on our imports alone could amount to more than P20 billion a year.

In business, they are saying that healing the government finances of the smuggling scourge can become one of the priorities of the Aquino (Part II) administration.

Local flour milling companies, for instance, have been complaining about rampant smuggling of flour from Turkey.

Our info is, well, the industry already submitted a detailed report on the smuggling operation of at least eight companies. It is hard to say whether or not Alvarez has already seen it. More likely, the syndicates at the BOC tore it apart, burned the scraps, and buried the ash.

Anyway, reports persisted that, apart from being smuggled, shipments of certain brands of Turkish flour were contaminated. The guys down here, more than anybody else up there, will most likely end up consuming the bad flour.

Reportedly, the government so far this year lost at least P51 million in import duties and VAT on imported Turkish flour—and this was only based on the operation of those eight firms, as detailed in the paper submitted to BOC.

In one case, the importer valued the flour shipment at $24.77 per metric ton. The reference value, which is a guide for the BOC, was $300 per. It’s that kind of cheating!

Word has it that the undervaluation continues even under the Aquino (Part II) administration. We need to stop it right away.

That kind of concrete step, boss!

-Conrado Banal III

Source: http://business.inquirer.net/money/columns/view/20100728-283688/Lick-it-or-not