THE Bureau of Customs on Thursday filed a smuggling case against meat processing firm Foodsphere Inc., the maker of the CDO processed meat products, for undervaluing  buffalo meat importations from India by more than a third.

Customs commissioner Angelito Alvarez accused Foodsphere Inc., with address at 560 West Service Road, Paseo de Blas, Valenzuela City, of declaring a per-kilo value of only $1.50 (P66) for 8.96 million kilograms of buffalo meat that arrived between October 2009 and March this year.

BOC is charging the company, known for its CDO Karne Norte and Samba Corned Beef, a P1.1-billion smuggling case.

Charged were Rolando Juan Cruz, the company’s assistant vice president for  finance, and Romero Lerit, a customs broker based in Escolta, Manila. 

Alvarez said Foodsphere’s undervaluation attracted the attention of customs investigators because it was only slightly higher than the price of a half a kilo of galunggong. 

Other meat importers, Alvarez said, declared a per kilo value of $2.58 (P113.52) for similar imported products sourced from the same supplier within the same period.

Customs deputy commissioner Gregorio Chavez, concurrently the executive director of BOC’s run-after-the smugglers group, said Foodsphere  declared a combined dutiable value of only P675.74 million for its 207  buffalo meat import entries when the correct dutiable value should have been P1.09 billion.

As a result, the company paid only a nominal amount of P67.57 million in customs duty when assessed value should have been P109.41 million Chavez alleged that Foodsphere reportedly used falsified invoices to support the gross undervaluation of their various importations.

The total amount the government lost from the respondent’s fraudulent declarations was P41.83 million, BOC claims.

“BOC’s position, however, was that it was not enough to simply require the respondents to pay the correct duties and taxes plus penalties and surcharges,” Alvarez said.

The Customs chief also instructed the agency’s post-entry audit group to check all importations made by Foodsphere before October 2009 to determine if there were irregularities with past shipments.

Foodsphere officials were not immediately available for comment.