The Bureau of Customs (BOC) Post Clearance Audit Group (PCAG) generated P487 million from audits of companies from January to June 5, 2020.
Of the total, P19.756 million came from audit findings of five companies and P160.027 million from 24 companies issued with Audit Notification Letters (ANL) and which applied for the Prior Disclosure Program (PDP). Another P307.238 million was collected from 12 companies that were not issued with ANLs but availed of the PDP, BOC said in a statement.
Formerly called the Voluntary Disclosure Program, PDP is based on international best customs practice that allows importers to voluntarily pay for discrepancies in duties and taxes on previous shipments before post-clearance audit.
ANLs inform companies they will be subjected to post-clearance audit and contain information on the audit procedure.
PCAG’s Compliance Assessment Office from January to June 5 also served 20 ANLs to customs bonded warehouse (CBW) operators and their members for suspected violation of the provisions of Customs Administrative Order No. 13-2019 (Guidelines on the establishment, operation, supervision and control of CBWs) in relation to Customs Memorandum Order No. 26-2011 (Guidelines in the conduct of monitoring and audit of CBWs Warehouse Monitoring and Audit Unit under Post-Entry Audit Group).
The function of post-clearance audit, formerly called post-entry audit, was returned to BOC in 2016 after the function was transferred to Department of Finance in 2014.
In 2019, BOC issued CAO 01-2019, which implements the post-clearance audit function and PDP of BOC, pursuant to the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act. PCAG started issuing ANLs in 2019.
Under CAO 01-2019, within three years from the date of final payment of duties and taxes or from customs clearance, BOC may conduct an audit examination, inspect, verify, and investigate records pertaining to any goods declaration, which includes statements, declarations, documents, and electronically generated or machine-readable data.
Such audit intends to ascertain the correctness of the goods valuation and determine the possible liability of the importer for duties, taxes, and other charges, including any fine or penalty.
PCAG in 2019 served 307 ANLs and, as of November 2019, also received 123 applications to PDP. The unit collected P2.051 billion in 2019, all from PDP. – Roumina Pablo
