BOC taps SGS for seminar on oil imports

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Customs (BOC) and top global shipment verification and inspection expert Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) S.A. which is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, have teamed up to formulate a common platform for the enhanced security, integrity, promotion, and performance of the oil industry in the country.

The initial effort, focused on the efficient inspection and taxation of inbound petroleum products, have been made in a recent three-day seminar workshop organized by the BOC in partnership with SGS and attended by top Customs officials especially those in ports that handle oil import shipments.

The seminar paved the way for a more comprehensive overview and update on current trends and issues facing the Philippine oil industry, such as: oil management and storage, fuel storage, fuel security and trusted fuel supply, fuel fraud prevention approaches, fuel marking system enhancement, fuel integrity, valuation risks management, tax evasion prevention, fair business competition, and price verification.

The seminar likewise gave the BOC and SGS S.A. the opportunity to intensively discuss and subsequently identify appropriate solutions to stop oil smuggling in the country which has been cheating the government millions of pesos every year.

According to Prudencio M. Reyes Jr., BOC deputy commissioner for assessment and operations, who spearheaded and facilitated the seminar, the seminar’s outputs would form part of the BOC initiatives to bring out the best in the country’s oil industry operational and technical policies, services and practices.