Bureau of Customs starts crackdown on importers of canned meat products

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Customs started its crackdown on importers of canned meat products which deliberately undervalue their goods to avoid taxes.

Based on the government’s latest TaxWatch campaign advertisement, the BOC zeroed in on unscrupulous importers of Palm, Hereford, Hormel, Libby’s and Pampeano corned beef.

The BOC cited the ridiculously low import values declared by some importers at P3 to P4 per can when the retail prices of these products range from P122 to P200 each.

It identified Federated Distributors Inc. which declared an import value of only P3.89 for a 326 gram can of Palm corned beef.  This product is being retailed at P173 to P200 in supermarkets.

In contrast, the BOC noted that Duty Free Philippines Corp.  declared a can of Palm as P103.50.

Federated Distributors likewise was found to have undervalued imports of Libby’s and Hereford. The declared value for each can was only P3.18 for Hereford and P4.34 for Libby’s.

Two other importers under fire for underdeclaring were Luisitano Inc. and Silver Glade Enterprises.

Silver Glade declared the value of a 340g can of Pampeano at P4.23 while Luisitano declaed it as P4.33.   

BOC noted that Puregold Duty Free and Rustans Supermarket declared a can of Pampeano at P87.02 and P77.63, respectively.

Just last week, the government trained its sights on some importers of Spam and Ma Ling luncheon meat, which were excessively undervalued.

The TaxWatch campaign aims to increase transparency of tax payments by publishing on a weekly basis information on tax payments of certain industries.

It is in line with the government’s drive to curb tax evasion and shore up state coffers.