Custom cleanses list of brokers, importers

CEBU, Philippines - The Bureau of Customs has started cleaning up its roster of accredited brokers and importers from fictitious and non-existent companies.

Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon has issued special order No. 24-2012 creating a task force to sanitize the bureau’s list of accredited importers and brokers.

The task force dubbed as “Oplan Baklas” will expand the agency’s anti-smuggling efforts by reviewing the documents of its current accredited importers to find out if there is any “fly-by-night” company that has obtained accreditation.

Biazon said that in many of their seizures against illegally imported goods, they have encountered that some of these importers are non-existent or fictitious, but accredited with the bureau.

Biazon said that with such discovery, they will continue to scrutinize the documents of each accredited importer for verification whether these are really existing or not.

Importers accreditation is done by the Interim Customs Accreditation and Registration Unit (ICARE) under  Deputy Commissioner Danilo Lim.

The creation of ICARE is part of BOC’s organizational reforms to streamline its operations and enhance revenue collections.

The task force is divided into three groups, the Reconciliation Team, the Filtering Team and the Evaluation Team. (FREEMAN)