BOC Cebu aims to earn P27.5B in income this year

Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioner Isidro Lapeña believes that if all the imported goods arriving in Cebu have correct valuations, the Port of Cebu would hit its P27.5-billion target for 2018.

The P27.5-billion target collection for the Port of Cebu represents nearly five percent of the P598-billion target for the whole BOC.

The commissioner was recently in Cebu to open cargo containers at Cebu International Port (CIP) and to check if the importers and brokers had accurately declared contents of their shipments.

“If there is undervaluation, then we will have a problem. That’s something that you have to monitor very closely because it will result in negative deviation against the target collection,” said Lapeña.

“The opening of vans is to give the importers or brokers second thoughts about not declaring the proper valuation of their shipments,” Lapeña said.

During the opening of vans at CIP, Lapeña found out that a prominent importer who has a chain of hardware stores in Cebu had declared his plywood shipment as “zero tariff” so he could only pay the value-added tax (VAT). However, plywood carries a four percent importation tax.

“As a result, this importer has to pay the four percent tax, the VAT on the four percent tax plus the surcharge, which is equivalent to the entire correct value,” Lapeña said.

He said that once an importer is caught misdeclaring or undervaluing their shipments, they will be required to pay the correct duties and taxes and 250 percent surcharge.