Customs policy allows room for smuggling — trade group

By Ayen Infante

04/09/2008

A local trade group wants the Arroyo Administration to revise a policy imposed by the Bureau of Customs (BoC) which allegedly gives importers room to engage in smuggling.

Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) president and anti-smuggling task force chief Jesus Arranza told reporters yesterday that businessmen with Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (Pasg) head Undersecretary Antonio Villar recently agreed to inform President Arroyo on the alleged erroneous policy by the BoC on audit practices that were deemed disadvantageous to the government.

In a joint letter to Malacañang, FPI and Pasg raised grave concern on importers use of the voluntary disclosure program (VDP) even after an audit notification letter (ANL) had been issued prior to the scheduled date of a field audit.

Arranza argued that contrary to the policy, “the VDP ceases to be voluntary since it was already triggered by the issuance of an ANL. This policy is disadvantageous to the government as it will only encourage importers to just wait for the issuance of an ANL — if it will come in the first place.”

He added that even if importers received the ANL, “they could simply take their own sweet time and intentionally wait for the scheduled date of field audit, before making the voluntary disclosure.”

To save government time and money in the scheme, Arranza suggested to the government to require importers to avail of the VDP before an ANL is issued.

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