Smuggling of Turkish flour went unabated in the first five months of 2010 with government revenue losses for the period estimated to reach P51 million, according to local flour millers.
Ric M. Pinca, executive director of the Philippine Association of Flour Millers, had said that the losses covered only importations done by eight companies and did not include value added tax and import duty losses from misdeclared importations.
Turkish flour had been misdeclared as other items like soybean meal, which enjoyed zero duty and were not covered by VAT.
Pinca said that PAFMIL had already brought the matter to the attention of the Customs bureau although Commissioner-designate Alvarez hasn’t issued any official statement on the lingering problem.
Smugglers had been found to have declared import value of Turkish flours as low as $24.77 per metric ton, or just nine percent of the BOC value reference for Turkish flour of $300/MT.
The losses were the result of the undervaluation of imports by the eight companies, which Pinca had refused to identify.
One of the eight companies imported 8,592 MT of Turkish flour but declared only 5,389MT, with government losing at least P13.8 million, he said.
About 7,086MT was brought in by another company but it declared only 4,961MT, causing the government to lose P12.1 million in duties and VAT.
Pinca said that a third importer declared a total of 10,488MT but that it undervalued it by 23.3 percent, evading tax payment of P6.9 million.
The PAFMIL official revealed that the first two companies’ shipments came in through the Manila International Container Port (MICP) while the third passed through the MICP and the Port of Manila.
Source: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideNation.htm?f=2010/july/19/nation5.isx&d=2010/july/19
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