Business group hails seizure of ‘hot’ resins

Government’s recent seizure of 300 metric tons of smuggled plastic resins is a good sign that it is intent on launching "a serious crackdown" on smuggling activities that have been hurting domestic industries, a business leader noted yesterday.

"This is a positive development that speaks well of government’s campaign against all forms of smuggling," said Antonio Garcia, president of the Federation of Philippine Industries.

The newly-formed National Anti-smuggling Task Force (NASTF), headed by lawyer Luciano Millan and deputy chief, Col. Emmanuel Andaya recently seized 17 containers of plastic resins from a manufacturing firm operating its own Customs Bonded Warehouse in Bulacan.

The NASTF is under the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission whose deputy chief for operations, Senior Inspector Christopher dela Cruz helped coordinate the operation against the suspected smugglers.

The materials were illegally diverted by its consignee, Fame Plastic Products, whose president is a certain Anna Navarro-Poe, to Chemvision, a trading firm in Quezon City owned by a certain Te Lee Cheng. Fame operates its own Customs Bonded Warehouse (CBW) in Bulacan.

The Tariff and Customs Code prohibits the unlawful diversion of duty and tax-free materials to unauthorized parties. While CBWs are allowed to import raw and semi-processed materials as an incentive for legitimate export firms, this has been abused by some firms which sell these materials at the local market.

Garcia pointed out that rampant smuggling of plastic resins has hurt the local petrochemical industry, while depriving government of an estimated P572 million in lost revenues for last year alone. "Government losses from all kinds of smuggling may run up to billions of pesos while having untold effects on domestic industries," he said.

"The seizure of these smuggled plastic resins is a step in the right direction. We hope that this will signal the beginning of an intensified government campaign against smuggling," Garcia added.