CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—Authorities seized a Philippine ship off Misamis Occidental waters for allegedly falsifying documents to avoid paying duties and taxes, an official of Bureau of Customs in Region 10 (BoC-10) said Wednesday.
M/V Jake Vincent Seis allegedly tried to pass itself off as a vessel plying the BIMP-EAGA route, which would have exempted it from paying certain duties and taxes to the government.
BIMP-EAGA, or Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asian Growth Area, is a subregional economic co-operation initiative that began in 1994 to accelerate economic development in among its four-members countries.
Alvin Enciso, chief of the BOC-10 Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service, said the seized vessel appeared to have tried to take advantange of the BIMP-EAGA "free trade agreement that would allow the vessel to deliver and pick up cargo within the member countries" with reduced or no taxes at all.
Loaded with 1,450 metric tons of copra, M/V Jake Vincent Seis made it appear that its port of origin was Indonesia, Enciso said.
The cargo vessel was heading to an oil milling facility in Jimenez, Misamis Occidental to deliver its shipment when a team from BOC-10 and the Philippine Coast Guard boarded the ship on August 28, Enciso disclosed.
According to BOC-10, it found out that the ship’s owner, Villa Shipping Lines Inc., allegedly deceived the government by making it appear that the M/V Jake Vincent Seis was plying the ports within BIMP-EAGA, when its operations was only limited to domestic routes in the Philippines.
Enciso said the practice is a common "modus operandi" to get away with tax and duties to the government.
In the case of the M/V Jake Vincent Seis, BOC-10 said the cargo ship owed the government some P35 million in duties and taxes.
Enciso said they discovered the ship's identity by coordinating with the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina), which issued a certification that the vessel’s special permit to operate in the BIMP-EAGA was fake.
Customs officers inquired about the records of the duties and taxes that they paid, but the ship’s 19 Filipino officers and crew reportedly failed to present any proof.
In a separate interview, Jamail Marohomsalic, BOC-10 district collector, said the M/V Jake Vincent Seis was issued with a warrant of seizure and detention by the agency on Sept. 8.
“If the ship was not diligently searched, we would not have found out about the bogus special permit they presented in order to legitimize their activities,” said Dir. Marohomsalic. (PNA/Jigger J. Jerusalem)
* Stay at Home and START YOUR OWN blog site, business or personal website, or e-commerce store at
www.wirenine.comLinkback:
https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=108318.0
