THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) will auction off two ships still in its possession some months after they had been seized in a move to increase its collections and pare down its shortfall.

BOC said it will auction MV 7107 Islands, a cruise ship that was allegedly brought into the country without the necessary documents, and MV Captain Ufuk, a vessel that was used to try to smuggle firearms to the Philippines.

Officials say they are already in discussions with Maritime Industry Authority to value the two vessels and set the floor price for its auction.

BOC Commissioner Napoleon Morales said MV Ufuk, docked at South Harbor, costs about P89 million, while the value of MV 7107 is still undetermined but could also reach the P100-million range.

“We are incurring more expenses because we hired seafarers to man the ship. Due to the typhoon, the Philippine Ports Authority told us to transfer the vessels away from the pier to avoid damaging the pier,” Morales said.

On the other hand, the Department of Finance has already issued a forfeiture order of the cruise ship after its owners failed to pay some P19.8 million in duties and taxes.

BOC documents showed that the 110-meter- long cruise ship, then owned by  C/C Marine of Copenhagen, Denmark, entered the country through the Port of Batangas in September 2007 just to undergo minor repairs on its generators and for some plumbing works on some of its cabins.

“Subsequently, a sale was entered into between C/C Marine and Mr. Esteban Tajanlangit [owner of 7,107 Shipping] for the sale of the subject vessel as evidenced by a memorandum of agreement dated September 24, 2007, which claimant submitted during a seizure proceedings,” BOC report said.

In November 2007, Tajanlangit entered into a ship-management agreement with Orophil Shipping International Co. Inc. to manage the ship. BOC earlier this year discovered that buyer failed to produce the documents covering the importation and seized the vessel in late May.

The vessel has made Subic Bay its home port, committing P201 million for its cruise-ship operations. It has 137 cabins with a total bed capacity of 370.

In August BOC seized MV Captain Ufuk, which arrived in Mariveles without notice carrying un-manifested automatic high-powered weapons.

Documents onboard the vessel show that the Panamanian flag carrier originated from Turkey, stopped over at Indonesia and had a course plotted for Batangas.

If the sale of the vessels pushed through, it will ease pressure on BOC to attain its target collection of P273.3 billion as its shortfall from January to September already reached P32.05 billion.

Based on its targets, BOC still has to collect P64.72 billion during October to December, but officials say it would be difficult for the agency to meet its target for the remaining months of the year.

The agency still has to release its October collection figures.

Total BOC collections for the nine-month period ending September reached P165.39 billion as against the target of P201.42 billion.

Cash collections were off-target by P32.05 billion to just P144.2 billion, while collections from Tax Expenditure Fund, or those duties and taxes from rice imports of the National Food Authority, also incurred a deficit of P8.41 billion, with the agency only gathering P21.19 billion.