BOC to get P500 M in 2012 budget to stop oil smuggling

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Customs (BOC) is getting an extra P500 million next year for a petroleum inventory system project and online X-ray imaging equipment to help the agency stop the rampant smuggling of petroleum and other high value imports, a lawmaker said yesterday.                                         

Rep. Arnel Ty of the party-list Liquified Petroleum Gas Marketer’s Association (LPGMA) said that once completed, the petroleum inventory system will enable Customs to keep track of all oil imports, from which the bureau derives 17 percent of its annual revenue collection. 

Ty made the statement shortly after Customs filed a P1.05-billion oil smuggling case against Petronas Energy Philippines Inc., the first case filed by new Commissioner Rufino Biazon.

The suit brought to P44.33 billion the combined worth of smuggling cases filed by Biazon and former Commissioner Angelito Alvarez against seven oil importers over the last 15 months.

Smuggling cases were previously filed against Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. (worth P24.48 billion); Cross Country Oil & Petroleum Corp. (P8.5 billion); Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc. (P5.1 billion); Jetti Petroleum Inc. (P4.1 billion); Oilink International Corp. (P700 million); and Filpride Resources Inc. (P400 million).

Ty urged the Department of Justice, where the cases are pending, to expedite their resolution.

He also urged the BOC to develop its own laboratories and staff needed to suppress the technical smuggling of petroleum.

“The bureau should not have to rely on other parties to perform the initial chemical analysis on samples of imported oil products,” he said.                                                                   

Ty noted that some refined petroleum shipments are misrepresented as additives or unfinished products to avoid payment of additional import duties and taxes.

The online X-ray imaging system, on the other hand, allows electronic capture, distribution, and sharing of images of shipments and information from two pilot sites, the Port of Manila and the Manila International Container Port.

The BOC collects duties and value-added taxes on imports. The bureau is expected to contribute P365.1 billion or 25.3 percent of the aggregate P1.446 trillion in tax revenues that government hopes to collect next year.