MANILA PORT: The Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Thursday confiscated what it claims were smuggled goods worth P14 million at the Port of Manila.
The imported goods arrived from China through the Port of Manila in January and were seized on grounds of technical smuggling, in violation of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines, the bureau said in a statement.
“Some importers and brokers try to cheat on paying the correct duties and taxes by dramatically lowering the value and misdeclaring the weight of the items they import,” said Deputy Commissioner for Enforcement Ariel Nepomuceno.
“Let this be a lesson to them that any gross undervaluation and misdeclaration made on import entries is a form of technical smuggling and will be dealt with accordingly,” the official added.
The shipments were in seven 40-foot container vans with ceramic tiles and sanitary wares consigned to Linking Enterprises.
“A 100 percent document and physical examination revealed that the shipment was found to be grossly undervalued and misdeclared in weight by more than 30 percent,” the bureau said.
The importer supposedly declared the shipment’s volume at 121,720 kilograms and value at P216,139 when the importation actually weighed 174,362.80 kgs. and actually cost 59 percent higher at P529,382, the BOC noted.
The BOC also seized a container van of circuit breakers that was undervalued by as much as 84 percent. The shipment was consigned to Fortress Kinetic Electrical Enterprises and arrived from Japan in March.
Two other container vans loaded with steels sheets, dryer machine, molding machine, polycarbonate and pigment used in producing galvanized roofs were also seized due to misdeclared volume and undeclared items, the BOC said.
The discrepancies between the declared and actual weight of the shipments were supposedly over 30 percent. The importation, with an estimated value of P1.88 million, was consigned to Aberjov Trading.
The BOC also seized a 20-foot container van of polyurethane resin for gross undervaluation. The BOC said the declared value of P97,538 was 63 percent lower than the actual P258,923.
Consigned to Richneil Marketing, the shipment from Korea arrived at the Port of Manila in December 2014.
The owners and licensed brokers of Linking Enterprises, Fortress Kinetic Electrical Enterprises and Richneil Marketing will face smuggling-related charges for the seized importations, the bureau said.
