BOC to audit imports of fish, onions on compliance issues
THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) is also eyeing to audit importations of fish and onion, among other sensitive agricultural products that might be susceptible to customs compliance issues, including undervaluation.
Customs Assistant Commissioner and spokesman Vincent Philip Maronilla told the Businessmirror that the second phase of audit covering importations of other agricultural products, such as fish and vegetables, may happen after their initial audit on last year’s pork and chicken imports or once they finish substantially the workload for the initial audit.
Maronilla, who heads the bureau’s Post-clearance Audit Group (PCAG), said all of these audit phases are in line with Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero’s directive to intensify postclearance audit on all agricultural products.
“We will look into anything that is marked that is highly sensitive by Department of Agriculture in terms of protection for the local industries so we will review the allocation. The fish industry, we will check out the allocation; for the importations by manufacturers [we will check if they are using those purely for trading or are they using it purely for manufacturing,” Maronilla said.
Apart from the sensitivity of these agricultural products, he said they are also considering the revenue impact of the importations of these products.
On Tuesday, the Customs official told this paper that they are already eyeing to start this April their initial audit of last year’s pork and chicken imports to look into issues of undervaluation, among others.
He earlier said they are looking to initially audit shipments of 40 pork importers and 20 chicken importers, and are currently preparing their recommendation to the Commissioner of the list of companies to be issued audit notification letters (ANLS).
Should the ANLS be issued in April, the initial audit is targeted to be finished by August or September this year.
If an importer receives an ANL, this does not automatically mean that they have already violated customs rules.
But if importers are later found to have indeed violated customs rules, they may face sanctions, including being asked to pay the deficiency, he said. Maronilla added erring importers may also be charged with civil offenses if they are found out to have been involved in fraudulent practices, adding that there is a possibility that PCAG will recommend to its legal service that these importers be further investigated for possible fraud.
While the bureau is currently focused on auditing last year’s imports for pork and chicken, he said “there is still a possibility” for them to cover more years of importations.