BIR raps Oillink Intl as tax cheat before DOJ

For allegedly cheating government out of taxes and duties and then brandishing a fake shipment inspection certificate, oil importer Oillink International Corp. is facing smuggling raps before the Department of Justice. The Bureau of Customs filed a complaint Thursday alleging that Oillink defrauded the government of about P700 milllion in taxes and duties by under-declaring more than 220,244 barrels of diesel. The bureau also said that the company was in cahoots with Customs employees to protect its alleged smuggling activities. Charged were Oillink chairman and owner Paul Chi Ting Co, president Esther Magleo, importation and finance manager Janice Co Reyes, and other John and Jane Does and Customs employees who were in connivance with the importer. Oillink is the supplier of independent oil player Triple K and maintains an oil terminal in Mariveles, Bataan. This is the first smuggling complaint filed against an oil importer, Customs Commissioner Angelito A. Alvarez said at a news briefing Thursday. "We may have just opened the proverbial pandora's box here, which could help expose some other oil industry players' deeply-hidden skeletons and provide us with a better understanding as to how the syndicates involved in oil smuggling are able to cheat the government of billions of pesos," he said. Under-declaration, falsification Alvarez said that in July 2004, Oillink imported some 221,244 barrels of diesel fuel from Korea. However, Oillink only listed and paid duties on 177,244 barrels. "Records showed that Oillink's modus [operandi] was to break their shipment into five parcels covered by different bills of lading, but pay duties for only four parcels," the commissioner said. Oillink brought 23,596 metric tons of the shipment to its oil terminal and presented a survey and authentication certificate from Marine Inspection and Testing Services (MITS), he added. However, MITS head Manuel Tan attested that Oillink did not hire MITS and that the company, whose job is to inspect import shipments, never issued a certificate on behalf of the Oillink cargo. —VS, GMANews.TV