18 suspected smugglers face criminal raps
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 11/20/2008 3:33 PM
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The Bureau of Customs on Thursday filed criminal charges against 18 people suspected of smuggling cloth, secondhand clothes, bags and laptops into the country.
In the complaint filed before the Department of Justice, the bureau accused officials of Hanjo Corp. of bringing in an illegal shipment of 192 Lenovo notebooks worth P1.3 million using fake papers.
The bureau also filed charges against consignees of several shipments of cloth worth P468,792 and secondhand clothes worth P800,000, both of which had incomplete papers.
The bureau y alerted shipments of garlic and sugar suspected to be intended for the Holiday season.
Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales earlier said the 2009 revenue-collection goal being hatched by Philippines economic managers may not be realistic and achievable as the world enters into an economic recession. “Whether or not we will be able to meet the P317-billion target, my only answer is: Only God knows,” Morales told reporters.
He said the bureau has submitted a document to try and convince the Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination that the BOC can only muster P292 billion for 2009 after the economic slowdown has been factored in.
In the document submitted to the DBCC, the bureau said it could only achieve P292 billion in total collection next year since the Philippine economy, as measured by the growth domestic product, would likely grow between 4.1 percent and 4.8 percent, compared with an earlier forecast of 6.1 percent.
“The slowdown in the economy in 2009 can be seen in the decline in growth of import and export,” the BOC said in a position paper submitted to the DBCC.
As the economy slows, crude imports for 2009 is estimated at 94.89 million barrels, or 32.7 percent higher than this year’s import volume on program. The situation makes it difficult for the bureau to achieve a higher collection goal, the BOC said in the document.
“With these arguments, we propose that the emerging 2009 target be recomputed at P292.23 billion to reflect the actual emerging trends in the factors that affect revenue collections,” the bureau added.
