THE correction in the Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) valuation database system has resulted in increased values for about 3,000 shipments amounting to higher collections of more than P17 million for the bureau, according to Customs commissioner Napoleon Morales.
Legislators earlier said the shift from the benchmarking system to the valuation database compromised the bureau’s collection, which fell short of its P228-billion target last year.
In 2007, the customs valuation team under deputy commissioner Reynaldo Nicolas updated the valuation reference and information system, the main database of test values used for computing duties and taxes of imported goods to stop probable violations of under declaration.
“We updated the valuation database publishing 9,650 test values based on international prevailing prices of commodities. For oil importations alone, the bureau collected an additional P3.9 billion — through a combination of value verification using the industry-accepted (Singapore Mean of) Platts Report on oil and strict monitoring of the volume being discharged from vessel to vessel,” Morales said.
“If not for the said valuation system, the P3.9 billion could have been foregone revenues for the government,” he added.
“It is true that for benchmarking, the government is assured of securing at least P200,000 per container. However, there are containers that should pay much more than that,” he said.
Benchmarking entails the payment of uniform fees ranging from P150,000 to P200,000 for container vans entering the country’s ports. The rate of duty varies per article.
Morales, however, said some articles – for example high-end spare parts — should be slapped more than the benchmarking ceiling of P200,000.
“Imagine, this shipment could have brought in millions for the bureau but because of benchmarking, they are limited to paying no more than P200,000,” he said.
