Customs explains loss of P16b oil revenue

By Joel E. Zurbano - Manila Standard Today

Morales ordered the bureau's Internal Inquiry and Prosecution Division to place under investigation a ranking Customs official in Subic, who was tagged by Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group chief Antonio Villar as the one responsible for the rampant oil smuggling in Subic.

A CUSTOMS official brushed aside allegations of revenue losses due to oil smuggling, saying the discrepancies could be attributed to the separate computations of agencies and the tax-free importation of oil through the special economic zones.

Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales said that all shipments of oil are fully recorded. He rejected the claim of Senator Francis Escudero that at least P16 billion in revenues was lost from the smuggling of 4 billion liters of oil. Escudero based his estimate on an average of P4 tax per liter.

The alleged smuggling cropped up during a Senate hearing where Customs officials revealed that 33 percent of oil importations went untaxed. Morales said there were discrepancies in the reporting of imports.

Morales said the differing sets of data reported by the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Customs could be attributed to the separate computations of both agencies. For instance, BIR computes the oil tax on a per liter basis while Customs uses the per barrel valuation, according to Morales.

Likewise, Morales said that the oil and aviation fuel sold to in economic zones are tax-exempt.
Morales said based on Customs documents, a total of 84,081,542 barrels of crude oil was imported from January to December last year, with duties and VAT, amounting to P7,255,459,591 and P28,967,787,017, respectively.

He added the total amount of collection for 2007 on crude importation was P36,223,337,778 including other charges amounting to P91.170 million.

The value of crude oil imports was at P249.848 billion compared to 2006 at P225.531 billion with a 10.8 percent or P24.317 billion deviation.

Morales also ordered the bureau's Internal Inquiry and Prosecution Division to place under investigation a ranking Customs official in Subic, who was tagged by Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group chief Antonio Villar as the one responsible for the rampant oil smuggling in the area.