Anti-smuggling drive gaining headway — report

Efforts of the national government to neutralize big-time smuggling syndicates are gaining headway as proven by the recent increase in tax collections, a report reaching the office of Interior and Local Government Secretary Angelo Reyes said.

According to the report, brokers have started increasing their benchmark rates since mid-January from P50,000 to P85,000 per container at the Port of Manila and the Manila International Container Port (MICP).

Reacting to the report, Reyes, who heads Task Force Anti-Smuggling, predicted that with an average of 2,000 containers being shipped to the MICP and Port of Manila daily, there will be an increase of P70 million in tax revenues per day, or P2.1 billion per month.

"Hopefully, we can sustain the same trend considering that importation usually decreases during and after the celebration of the Chinese New Year as shown by Bureau of Customs (BoC) statistics," he said.

President Arroyo created the anti-smuggling task force to assist the Customs bureau in addressing rampant smuggling in various parts of the country.

It is estimated that the government loses at least P54 billion to big-time smuggling syndicates each year.

Reyes said the increase in the BoC’s revenue collections also shows that smugglers are starting to feel the heat of the national government’s intensified crackdown.

"This is only at a tactical and operational level. We expect to gain more with the policy actions that we are aggressively pursuing," Reyes said.

Among other plans, the task force is purging the list of Customs-bonded warehouses (CBWs), custom brokers and importers; disposing of abandoned and overstaying cargoes that are congesting the various ports in the country; auditing the more than 1,000 registered CBWs; and implementing Republic Act 9280.

RA 9280, otherwise known as the Custom Brokers Act, was passed in March last year. It aims to hold brokers accountable for all the transactions they enter into.

The Department of Finance, however, temporarily suspended its implementation pending a thorough review, as demanded by a group of corporate brokers.