Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has ordered the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to keep a closer watch over the entry of “hot” rice and sugar and speed up the auction of seized stocks amid the current supply and price issues concerning these prime commodities.

Dominguez said the BOC should keep tabs on the smuggling of these commodities, given that the currently tight domestic supply of both rice and sugar would naturally prompt unscrupulous traders and other groups to sneak more of these goods into the country without paying taxes.

In his report to Dominguez, BOC Commissioner Isidro Lapeña said that a public auction was held last July 17 for some 75,000 sacks of seized rice stocks from the Sta. Rosa Farm Products Corp.

He said another public auction was held the following day for another 25,000 sacks of rice in line with President Duterte’s instruction to swiftly dispose of rice stocks under BOC custody.

Both auctions yielded a total of P177.9 million in additional revenues for the BOC, Lapeña said.

The amount “shall be held in escrow pending final resolution of seizure and abandonment proceedings,” Lapeña said in his report during a Department of Finance (DOF) Executive Committee (Execom) meeting.

Dominguez told the commissioner to make sure that importers of the seized stocks do not end up buying them during the auction.

In response, Lapeña said the BOC made sure that the importer was excluded from the proceedings after they had asked the National Food Authority (NFA) for a list of registered rice importers.

Lapeña said the bidding for the rice stocks was initially conducted by the BOC because the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) needed more time to set up its auction system for the commodity.

“But next time sir, we will avail of the (auction) system,” Lapeña said.

Earlier, Dominguez ordered the BOC and Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to train their sights on the smuggling of rice and four other commodities.

Dominguez told Lapeña and BIR Commissioner Caesar Dulay that they should focus on rice, fuel, steel, cigarettes and other food and agricultural product such as chicken, onions and garlic in beefing up the governments’ efforts to combat smuggling.

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