Inspect rice imports for misdeclared quality, not volume, Senate urges Customs bureau

THE rice import process should screen for misdeclared rice shipments, because importers evade higher tariffs by declaring their rice to be of lower quality, a Senator said at a hearing in the chamber Thursday.

Senator Francis N. Pangilinan said the Bureau of Customs (BoC) should ensure rice imports are classified correctly because the disparity in valuations between highquality rice with 5% broken grains content and lower-quality varieties with 25% broken content.

“Ang laki ng nawawala kung ang dine- deklara 25% broken, tapos sa BoC walang capacity to determine, whether it is well- milled or regular- milled ( We lose a lot when a shipment is declared 25% broken, while the BoC has no capacity to determine whether a shipment is well-milled or regular-milled),” Mr. Pangilinan said.

According to the Department of Agriculture, 25% broken rice costs $438 per ton, while 5% broken rice costs $490 per ton. Mr. Pangilinan said it is possible shipment values are being understated via misdeclarations of rice quality.

“You will lose 35% of the $50 (difference in value), ganon kalaki ‘ yung di nakokolekta (that’s how much we’re failing to collect), that’s why the DA, the BoC and the DoF ( Department of Finance), will have to figure out how to inspect and determine the quality of rice,” he said.

Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo B. Guerrero said experts will be deployed in the agency to help with inspections.

“Kung pwede mabigyan kami ng mga experts na tutulong sa pagexamine sa quality ng rice ( We need experts to help determine rice quality),” Mr. Guerrero said.

“Ang sa amin, pagdating sa border control. Ang responsibilidad ay nasa BPI (Bureau of Plant Industry) pagdating sa importasyon ng bigas (We’re in charge of border control, while the BPI’s responsibility is to determine rice import quality).”

The BPI, meanwhile, said its personnel only monitor for food safety and disease, and are not trained to determine rice quality. As such, Senators requested the help of the Food Development Center (FDC), which previously assisted in the “fake rice” issue.

“When I was with the NFA, ‘ yan ‘ yung katulong to determine ‘ yung quality ng bigas. Kung maaalala niyo ‘ yung fake rice from China, FDC ang nag-test, validate, may kapasidad ‘ yan (It was the FDC that tested for rice quality when the fake rice from China issue arose),” Mr. Pangilinan said. —