Steel traders underdeclared value of Chinese shipments — BoC

THE BUREAU of Customs (BoC) has filed criminal complaints against two traders and their respective brokers for the illegal importation of steel, the first to be filed under the term of returning Commissioner Alberto D. Lina.

In a statement, the bureau said it charged Thunder Birds Trading and Sagfern International with fraudulent importation in violation of Section 3602 of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines.

The two trading companies were found to have underdeclared their China- sourced imports, shortchanging the shipments’ dutiable values.

“There was a very clear intent to cheat the government given the huge discrepancies in what they declared and what we found after examining their shipment,” Mr. Lina said.

Thunder Birds Trading was found to have misdeclared its P2.4- million shipment of corrugated steel sheets in January 2014 as “corrugated sheets, steel sheets, clamps and flexible hinges.” This enabled them to under- declare the total dutiable value by P2.2 million.

Meanwhile, Sagfern International was charged with misdeclaring its P800,000 shipment of steel sheet in coil, imported in December 2013, as gypsum board. This led to the dutiable value being underdeclared by P565,000.

Iron and steel were among the top five commodity imports last year, with over six billion kilograms of products shipped into the country, according to BoC data.

Thursday’s filing brings the total number of cases pursued by the agency under President Benigno S. C. Aquino III’s administration to 203. —