THE Philippine Bureau of Customs (BOC) will be auctioning off 275 containers of imported cargoes that have been overstaying at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) for more than 730 days, some having been unclaimed since 1989-1990.
MICP District Collector Elmir dela Cruz cited the need to dispose of the overstaying cargoes primarily to decongest the MICP, the BOC Public Information and Assistance Division (PIAD) said.
In a memorandum dated Jan. 28, Dela Cruz said the overstaying containers would be sold “to avoid port congestion and deterioration of saleable unclaimed cargoes, contributing to substantial losses to government revenues”.
Section 1801 of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines, as amended, states that a container is considered abandoned when the owner, consignee or importer “fails to file an entry within a non-extendible period of 30 days from the date of discharge of the last package from carrying vessel or aircraft.”
Dela Cruz added that his office will begin examining and running an inventory of the overstaying shipments today (Feb. 3) to assess them for possible sale that can generate incremental revenues for the government.
The PIAD said a public notice would be issued and details of the cargoes concerned would be posted on the BOC’s website starting today.
For 2014, the country’s second-largest revenue-generating agency has a collection target of P408.1 billion. –– Roumina M. Pablo
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