BOC imposes strict ‘no import permit, no release’ policy for rice shipments

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The Philippine Bureau of Customs (BOC) is now strictly prohibiting the entry of rice into the Philippines without the importer showing an import permit from the National Food Authority (NFA). Previously, traders were allowed to import the staple even though the permits were still being processed.

The BOC directive, effective beginning January 16, came after BOC recently seized 603 metric tons (MT) of Thailand white rice, estimated to be worth P15.4 million, at the Port of San Fernando, La Union.

Importer Progressive Grains and Milling Corp. initially filed an import entry for 7,200 MT of white rice, which arrived at the San Fernando port on December 15. The company paid P46.064 million in duties and other charges before the goods were released.

But after 144,000 sacks were released from the port, acting chief port operations officer Jose Guillermo withheld the succeeding releases after finding that more than the declared importation quantity had been processed for exit. Upon verification, 603.15 MT rice above the declared quantity were found to have released, and there was no import permit for the excess shipment.

District Collector Romeo Rosales issued a warrant of seizure and detention (WSD) on January 5, 2017 for the return of the released rice stored at the warehouse of a certain Celia Lui in Brgy. Santa Maria, San Jacinto, Pangasinan.

As of January 16, BOC has re-seized 12,000 sacks and transferred them to the NFA warehouse in San Juan, La Union for safekeeping pending investigation.

The importer will be charged with misdeclaration under the Customs and Modernization and Tariff Act and under Republic Act No. 10845, or the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act. R.A. No. 10845 penalizes agricultural smugglers and their cohorts with life imprisonment, and a fine of twice the fair value of the smuggled agricultural products and the aggregate amount of the taxes, duties, or charges avoided.

Due to this incident, Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon warned all agricultural importers that effective January 16, BOC will no longer allow the entry of rice imports without an import permit from NFA.

In a press conference on January 19, Faeldon cited this incident as one of the reasons why the newly formed Anti-smuggling Inter-Agency Committee on Rice agreed to strictly implement R.A. No. 10845, which states that an import permit must be secured first before importation of rice.– Roumina Pablo

Image courtesy of Naypong at FreeDigitalPhotos.net