BOC to probe rampant smuggling of oil, cigarettes, and cars

The rampant smuggling of oil, cigarettes, and cars have placed these products as the top three sources of revenue leaks and, as such, will be the subjects of an investigation, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) said Friday.

Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon said the BOC has launched the probe in a bid to stop the reports of rampant oil, luxury vehicle, and cigarette smuggling in many parts of the country.

“We are ready to use all available options in the probe against erring companies of oil, motor vehicle, and cigarette to make sure we control all forms of revenue leaks that are seriously detrimental to hitting revenue targets including proper trade facilitation processes of BOC,” Faeldon said.

BOC’s intelligence and investigation unit will conduct the probe.

It was disclosed that oil smuggling is being done through pilferage (siphoning-off of oil from tankers to barges in high seas and then to oil trucks on land delivery to depots) while luxury vehicle smuggling are carried out through misdeclaration, misclassification, and/ or undervaluation.

Cigarette smuggling, on the other hand, robs government revenues from non-payment of duties and taxes, aside from use of fake tax stamps of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

These all result to big revenues losses for the government, Faeldon said.

BOC records showed that motor vehicle, oil, and cigarette smuggling are currently top sources of revenue leaks feared to hit more than 150 billion per year, or almost 10.68 percent of the annual revenue target of 1467.9 billion.

BOC’s statistical data in oil smuggling revealed that the agency loses an estimated amount of 122.5 billion including 116-billion loss annually from illegal cigarette sales; and an estimated revenue leak of 121 billion in vehicle smuggling, according to data contained in reports of the US-based think-tank Global Financial Integrity and the International Monetary Fund.

The BOC claimed that Filipinos’ keeping up with trend on modish and majestic cars trigger the rampant smuggling of luxury cars into country.

The revenue losses from these three big tickets in Philippine imports contributes to the almost $3.85 billion (or 1165.5 billion, at 145/US dollar exchange rate) revenue loss from smuggling yearly, or 35.4 percent of the current annual revenue target, BOC records showed.