Php 17M Worth of Misdeclared RBD Soya Bean Oil Seized by BOC

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The Bureau of Customs (BOC) unrelenting campaign to stop smuggling at its ports has again resulted in the seizure of fifteen (15) twenty-footer container vans of Refined Bleached and Deodorized (RBD) Soya Bean oil worth US$399,338.80 or Php17.173M at its current commercial value that were misdeclared as Fraction of Unrefined Soya Bean Oil (F-RU) with a value of only US$166,653.20 or Php7.166M.

According to Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon, the soya bean oil shipment”s consignee Sea Probe Trading of Lipahan, San Juan, Batangas, tried to make windfall profits from his shipment by declaring it as F-RU, a commodity with zero tariff under the Asean Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) to avoid payment of duties, when in fact, Sea Probe should have paid a 7% rate of duties for it.

“Sea Probe Trading did not only misdeclare and undervalue their soya bean oil shipment, they also faked the AFTA certification supposedly issued by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry of Malaysia,” Biazon said, adding that, “This old “modus” in the Bureau of Customs is over. We have now strengthened our coordinative initiatives with our ASEAN counterparts. We can immediately detect this illegal practice.”

For his part BOC Enforcement Group Deputy Commissioner Horacio P. Suansing Jr. explained that he issued the Alert Order for the Sea Probe Trading shipment after his Operations and Intelligence Office (OIO) operatives at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) reported the violations committed by the said consignee, particularly on Sections 2530 of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines (TCCP).

“In compliance with the Commissioner’s order for the enhanced monitoring of cargoes entering the country, all frontline operatives of the BOC, particularly the officers and men of the Enforcement Group under my command, are under my strict order to seize and confiscate all illegally imported goods, no matter who are behind these illegal importations,” Suansing added.

The Sea Probe Trading shipment was grossly undervalued by US $232,685.60.