THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) last week apprehended four container vans at the Manila International Container Port containing appliances and other accessories misdeclared as hardware materials. The shipments are estimated to be worth P40 million.
Import documents declared one twenty-footer container van containing 170 packages of hardware materials while the other three forty-footer container vans were declared to contain 6,875 hardware tools. The shipment was consigned to X-mart Corp.
Following an alert order issued by Deputy Customs Commissioner Horacio Suansing, the shipments underwent full examination.
“Misdeclaration is outright smuggling,” said Suansing, who automatically recommended immediate seizure of the goods. “These are brand-new home and commercial appliances and they will be recommended to be auctioned off.”
Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales has ordered an investigation for possible filing of criminal charges against the consignee and an internal probe to determine if customs personnel were involved in the smuggling attempt.
Morales said vigilance against smuggling contributed to the bureau’s surpassing its five-month target by over P6 billion.
Partial figures for June show the customs bureau is on track to surpass its mid-year target of P124.056 billion.
