CC) says that the law classifying large-scale smuggling of agriculture products as economic sabotage should be extended to other products to ensure consumer protection.
Following the Bureau of Customs’ (BoC) passage of an order promulgating the implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act 10845 or the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act last week, the UFCC said that the bureau should strengthen its efforts to plug import leakages.
“We want to push that the economic sabotage should not only be applied [in the agriculture industry]… and the first to be the victims are the consuming public,” UFCC President Rodolfo B. Javellana, Jr. told BusinessWorld on the sidelines of a news conference last week.
Mr. Javellana also said that wider protection from smuggled goods will help local industries remain competitive.
Under the law, importers who misdeclared agricultural goods with a market value of P1 million or P10 million worth of rice, face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and a fine twice the fair value of the smuggled goods.
It also penalizes traders, or corporations who use falsified import permits to smuggle agricultural goods.
The administrative order is expected to be released “within a couple of days,” according to Customs Commissioner Nicanor E. Faeldon, after the BoC submitted it to the Department of Finance on Thursday for final review.
Cabinet Secretary Leoncio B. Evasco said recently that the National Food Authority (NFA) — which he supervises — together with the BoC, will tighten import procedures, allowing “no exemptions to whoever violates the Customs code.”
Mr. Evasco agreed when asked if the law should also be extended to other industries.
“It should also [be applicable] in other goods, since there is no difference. They should be subject to strict implementation. Whoever are producing products here in the country should also be protected,” he said.
No initiatives have surfaced on tightening penalties for large-scale smuggling of industrial goods.
“We hope that the government will be serious about this. It’s not that we are doubting them, but we actually congratulate their efforts. However, the UFCC will continue to watch out [for irregular activity in the bureau],” said Mr. Javellana. — E.J.C. Tubayan
