The Philippine government earned P73.51 million from the auction on October 17 of white rice, a record for revenue generated from a public bidding by the Bureau of Customs (BOC)-Manila International Container Port (MICP).
In a press statement, the BOC said Victor R. Del Rosario Rice Mill Corp won the bid for the rice contained in 70 twenty-foot containers. The entire shipment totaled 1.82 million kilos packed in 36,400 50-kilogram bags, and translates to P40.39 per kilogram. All demurrage and storage charges were waived. The winning bidder has five days to claim the cargo.
Sixteen entities joined the bidding, with the winner offering a quotation 64% higher than the minimum floor price of P47.03 million set for the whole lot, or P25.84 per kilogram. The auctioned rice, originally consigned to Jade Bros Farm and Livestock, Inc., was seized by BOC in November 2013 for lack of required import permits and valid quota allocation from the National Food Authority.
Year to date, the total revenues generated from auctions of illegally imported goods forfeited in favor of the government by BOC-MICP alone reached P542.6 million. A total of 420 container vans of rice have so far been auctioned off by BOC-MICP, with 1,047 more on hold. MICP is the country’s largest port in terms of trade volume and revenue.
“We are pleased with the strong interest from bidders and the favorable prices we are getting for the goods we auction,” BOC-MICP district collector Elmir Dela Cruz said. “We intend to expedite the disposition of forfeited goods not only to generate incremental revenue but to free up much needed space at our ports.”
On top of the public auctions, the BOC-MICP condemned 1,091 container vans of seized goods that could neither be auctioned nor donated to the Department of Social Welfare and Development. These included pirated or fake goods, and food items and medicines that were already expired and had no permits from the Food and Drug Administration.
Meanwhile, BOC said it is intensifying its campaign against smuggling as it continues to seize undervalued, misdeclared, and misclassified shipments coming into the country.
“Our findings show that eight out of every 10 shipments we place under alert order have findings of misdeclaration or undervaluation,” Customs Commissioner John Phillip Sevilla said.
But “to put things in perspective, over 90% of the average 80,000 container vans that arrive in the country each month have no problems. Only a minority of importers and brokers are not complying with the laws,” he explained.
