COA: Customs claim on income may be inaccurate

CEBU, Philippines – The Commission on Audit (COA) announced that while the revenue collections of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) in Cebu is P688 million more than its P5.663 billion targeted income, this figure may not be accurate.

The BOC had collected P6.351 billion in taxes in 2009 from imported cargoes that arrived in Cebu.

According to state auditors, the local BOC is among 14 ports and sub-ports in the country that failed to submit to COA the Import Entry Declaration (IED), Import Entry and Internal Revenue Declaration (IEIRD) and other documents.

"Because of the non-submission of these documents, matching of cargo manifests and entries up to the assessment based on the Tariff and Customs of the Philippines had not been undertaken," the COA reported.

Because of this, overall assessment and the necessary audit procedures on the BOC's reported cash collections and their subsequent remittances to the Bureau of Treasury could not be made.

COA has recommended that the shipping lines and aircraft companies must be required to deliver to the COA the copy of the cargo manifests and all Inward Foreign Manifest and Consolidated Cargo Manifests.

The purpose of the submission of these is to determine that all cargoes that arrived were assessed and reported in accordance with the provisions of the Tariff and Customs Code.

COA requested the district collector of the BOC to submit to their office the IEDs and IEIRDs and some other documents involving the imported cargoes in 2009 and the previous years, including this year's.

The procedure stated in the Customs Administrative Order No. 1-2007 is that immediately upon the arrival of the vessel carrying the imported cargoes, the master or its agent must submit to the Pier and Inspection Division the hard copy of the Inward Foreign Manifest and the Consolidated Cargo Manifest in four copies. (FREEMAN)