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THE
Bureau of Customs (BOC) will no longer accept
applications for renewal of bonded warehouse license in
an effort to curb technical smuggling.
Despite
talks of a win-win solution between government and
warehouse operators, the bureau will also no longer
issue new licenses as customs bonded warehouses (CBWs)
are believed to be used by unscrupulous operators to
misdeclare smuggled goods marked for reexport into the
country, Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales said.
“No
more licenses will be given out; we will just wait for
[current licenses] to expire,” Morales said.
The
Department of Finance is leaning on the BOC to crack
down on smuggling activities believed to be committed by
importers using the warehousing scheme.
This
development came about as data show that the government
is losing billions of pesos to technical smuggling.
The
bureau is also waiting for a final order from Malacañang
to padlock the country’s customs bonded warehouses.
At the
moment, there are talks on how to go about Malacañang’s
order for the bureau to move against warehouses that
still operate, except for two facilities—one owned by
the Philippine International Trading Corp., and the
other by the Philippine Exporters Confederation.
To date,
there are some 100 CBWs nationwide, guarded by customs
personnel. These are being used by export manufacturers
to store imported raw materials for reexport. Those who
fail to reexport such materials must pay the necessary
import duties and taxes.
In May,
the bureau revoked warehousing privileges for resin
products. The move, according to the bureau, was part of
an effort to curb technical smuggling in the country.
This
means that all importation would have to be taxed even
if the item is for export. Resin is a byproduct of
processing crude to fuel. It is one of the biggest
raw-material imports of the Philippines next to fuel oil
and steel.
Resins
are used to make plastic packaging, like bottles for
juice and mineral water, as well as plastic furniture,
PVC pipes and casings for consumer electronics such as
mobile phones, personal computers, printers and
television sets. |
