SUMMARY
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MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Customs (BcC) on Friday, March 14 filed a smuggling complaint before the Department of Justice against the owner of the Philippines’ second-largest steel importer.
Charges were filed against Shine Rapadas Montes, owner of Thunder Birds Trading. Also charged was the company’s customs broker, Jolly Lareza.
According to BOC, Thunder Birds imported 25 20-foot containers of goods from China declared as “steel bar, clamp, flexible tubing and hinges.” Upon inspection however, BOC discovered that the containers actually had “steel angle bars.”
Under the law, importers of steel products must have their shipments certified as safe and of quality by the Department of Trade and Industry-Bureau of Product Standards. Products that meet standards are issued a Philippine Standard License (PSL). The PSL is required before an Import Commodity Clearance could be issued.
The PSL is meant to avoid the proliferation of sub-standard steel products in the market.
According to BOC, Thunder Birds never applied for a PSL.
“Aside from curbing smuggling, we at the Bureau of Customs are mandated to stop the entry of substandard products in the market. These products pose risks for our people’s health and safety,” said Customs Commissioner John Sevilla.
The Philippine Iron and Steel Institute (PISI) and its member-industry associations recently warned that smuggled steel products are not compliant with safety standards.
Recently, a PISI technical team sent to inspect damaged structures in Bohol and Leyte found widespread use of substandard construction materials.
BOC said Thunder Birds misdeclared its import entries to evade payment of the additional safeguard duty for imported steel angle bars of P3,706.03 per metric ton (MT), or a total of P1.56 million, as mandated under Republic Act 8800 or the Safeguard Measures Act of 2000.
On top of misdeclaring its products, Montes and Lareza also misdeclared the quantity of steel bars imported by Thunder Birds by as much as 140%. The import documents declared a quantity of 175 MT, but the customs examiners found that the actual weight of the shipment was 420 MT.
Consequently, Thunder Birds’ owner and broker also cheated on the dutiable value declared for the shipment. Instead of a $306,600 (P14.5 million) total dutiable value, which would have resulted in total duties and taxes of P4.458 million, they only declared $105,000.00 (P4.974-Million), and duties and taxes of P1.417 million.
Data from BOC showed that Thunder Birds was the second-largest importer of steel products in 2013, bringing in about 7.6 million kilograms of iron and steel products under “HS Code 7214.” However, as compared with other large importers in the same steel product classification, Thunder Birds paid the second lowest amount of duties and taxes per kilogram of steel product they imported, at only P16.15 per kilo, and way below the weighted average import valuation for the same HS Code for products coming from China.
Local steel manufacturers have been appealing to government to step up measures to stop the unabated entry of smuggled steel products that are sold at a much lower price in the market. This has caused harm to the local steel industry, putting at risk at least 20,000 jobs. – Rappler.com
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