Top Cebu Importers Bared

The top 20 importers of Cebu in 2013 are finally known based on their amounts of customs duties and taxes that they have paid for the government.

A document obtained by MetroCebu News from the Bureau of Customs revealed that Steel Asia Manufacturing Corporation leads the list (P261, 370, 422. 00) followed by Toledo Power Company (P251, 543, 624.00) and Zone Lane Trading coming at 3rd (P63, 804, 309. 00).

On the 4th spot is Carmen Copper Corporation (P60, 530, 167. 00) while landing at the 5th is Cebu Energy Development Corporation (P57, 870, 618. 00).

Cebu customs collector (ret). Gen. Roberto Almadin has earlier announced that the Port of Cebu has exceeded its 2013 collection target, an indication that the Cebu business sector remains bullish and that the reforms which their office had instituted have paid off.

The Port of Cebu has collected P10, 197, 162, 000. 00 (Ten Billion One Ninety Seven Million One Hundred Sixty Two Thousand) which is far higher than the annual target of P8, 694, 508, 000. 00 ( Eight Billion Six Hundred Ninety Four Million Five Hundred Eight Thousand) registering a surplus of at least P1.5 Billion.

This is considered an all-time high for Cebu customs surpassing that of last year where the port collected P8.7 Billion, it was known.

“We just have to do our task and right now we see to it that each importer pays the correct duties and taxes and if necessary we have to upgrade the amount,” Almadin told MCN in an interview.

He also revealed that among the reforms which their office has instituted is the getting rid of the so called “Tara system”, a jargon among customs insiders for grease money in exchange for favors, among them the lowering of payment of customs duties and taxes and in extreme cases, technical smuggling through misdeclaration, misclassification, undervaluation of imported goods and other illegal acts.

President Benigno Simeon Aquino lll has many times castigated the Bureau of Customs, labeling it as the face of corruption in the government bureaucracy prompting a massive revamp that put some senior customs officials in a freezer by detailing them in an office called the Customs Policy Research Office (CPRO) which is based at the Department of Finance.

To replace those detailed at the CPRO through an Executive Order (E.O.), Pres. Aquino also created the Office of Revenue Agency Modernization (ORAM) and recruited new officials where Almadin was among those named as the new Cebu collector of Customs.

While Cebu has succeeded, the entire Bureau of Customs missed hitting its P340 Billion 2013 annual target, although according to the resigned Customs Commissioner Rozzano Rufino Biazon, hitting at least P300 Billion would already be considered a milestone for the second biggest tax collection agency of the government next to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

Biazon has been replaced by John Philip Sevilla, a former Undersecretary at the Department of Finance, as the former has resigned after his implication in the group of former legislators and government officials who are now facing charges for alleged misuse of Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) by reportedly spending it to the bogus non-government organizations linked to Janet Lim-Napoles.

Quoting Sevilla, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte recently announced that the BoC has just collected P303 Billion in cash collections although it is still expected to increase as non-cash collections coming from the Tax Expenditure Funds (TEF) of government agencies are still being collated. It was learned that TEF are considered deferred accounts.

Meanwhile, the annual collection report of the Port of Cebu prepared by collection division chief Conrado Abarintos, the rest of the top 20 importers of Cebu for 2013 are as follows; Twa Inc. (6th), Tridharma Marketing Corporation (7th), San Carlos Solar Energy Corp. (8th), Taiheyo Cement Phils. Inc. (9th), Petron Corp. (10th), Pryce Gases Inc. (11th), Apo Cement Corp (12th), Sony Philippines Inc. (13th), Power Sector Assets and Liabilities (14th), Cagayan Corn Products Corp. (15th), Galvaphil Inc. (16th), Ajinomoto Phils. Corp. (17th), Petronas Energy Phils. Inc (18th), Starcraft International Trading (19th) and Kepco SPC Power Corp. (20th).

Image Credit: www.steelasia.com