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THE
DEPARTMENT of Finance wants the Bureau of Customs (BOC)
to implement the use of an escrow account for imports
that pass through Philippine free-port zones, focusing
on Subic Bay as one of the country’s emerging ports.
A
department official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said the move stems from a recent controversy
that free-port zones are being used by unscrupulous
people to “technically smuggle” high-value goods into
the country.
He gave,
as an example, a company that imports 25 luxury cars.
The taxes for a portion of the total shipment—the value
of three to five vehicles—will be put in an escrow
account.
The
government will keep money as the cars enter the
country. The money, however, will be returned to the
importer after all of the cars have been re-exported.
“At
least the government [will get] some money [even if the
cars are smuggled into the country],” the official said.
The BOC
should be on guard if imports coming into a free port,
particularly Subic Freeport, do not exit the port
anymore, the official added. Imports through a Free port
are exempted from duties on the premise that the item is
mainly for export purposes.
The
escrow account as a measure against technical smuggling
is a way for Customs to mitigate the impact of a
stronger peso as the interagency Development Budget
Coordination Committee is not keen on lowering the
agency’s annual target collection of P254.47 billion,
the official said.
The BOC
can initiate an agreement with importers inside the free
port, with the support of the Subic Bay Metropolitan
Authority to achieve its mandated goal.
For its
April performance, the BOC—the government’s second-
largest collecting agency—has marginally exceeded its
collection target by about P30 million on total
collections of P21.76 billion, capping three straight
months of missing its target. |
