Customs officials seize P20-M ceramic tiles, machine

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) confiscated on Friday morning over P20 million worth of ceramic tiles and a molding machine that were smuggled into the Manila International Container Port. Customs Commissioner Angelo Alvarez said four container vans were declared as “ukay-ukay" or second-hand clothing but customs authorities detected a discrepancy between the shipment’s declared weight and its actual weight. Alvarez said that consignee Goldwater Marketing had declared the weight of the entire shipment at 86,060 kg but it turned out that the shipment’s actual weight was 138,610 kg. BOC Deputy Commissioner for Enforcement Horacio Suansing said the deliberate misdeclaration of weight indicated fraud, as the load was undervalued by 52,552 kg — resulting in a weight difference of 171 percent. While the consignee had declared the shipment at only $85,000 (P3.8 million), Suansing reported that upon verification with the BOC’s value reference system, it was found out that the shipment was actually worth more than $230,000 (P10.3 million). Meanwhile, the Customs Bureau seized from Columbia Plastic Manufacturing a shipment of a plastic injection-molding machine undervalued by at least more than P7,800,00. The machine was indicated in its import declaration as $16,000 or P720,000. However, upon verification by a technical expert from the Federation of the Philippine Industries it was learned that the actual value of the machine was between P8 million to P10 million. The confiscated goods will be auctioned off to help raise revenue for the government, Alvarez added. – AY/MRT/VS, GMA News