Over P30B possibly lost due to ‘misdeclared’ pork, chicken imports in last 4 years

MANILA, Philippines — The government has possibly lost over P30 billion in potential tariff collection in the past four years due to the “misdeclaration” of imported pork and chicken products in the country, senators were told Tuesday.

During the Senate Committee of the Whole on the alleged large-scale agricultural smuggling in the country, former Agricultural Sector Alliance of the Philippines (Agap) party-list representative Nicanor Briones presented to senators pork and chicken importation figures from 2018 to October 2021.

He said P16 billion was potentially lost in revenues over the “misdeclaration” of imported pork while P14.3 billion was lost over “misdeclared” chicken imports.

Briones explained that the volume of pork imports that entered the country totalled to over 1.46 billion kilograms since 2018. Of this volume, over 915 million kilograms or 63 percent were declared as mechanically deboned meat, fats, rind or skin, or offals.

“Ako po’y hindi naniniwala, kami mga farmers sa hog industry, na ito po ay totoong mga offals and skins [Me and other farmers in the hog industry do not believe that these are all offals and skins only],” he, however, said.

He said 50 percent of the 915 million, or over 457 million, may have been “misdeclared” as mechanically deboned meat, fats, rind or skin, or offals since the tariff imposed on such products would only be 5 percent as compared to the 40 percent imposed on ordinary pork cuts.

“Kung ating susumahin, halimbawa may 457.897 million kilos ang maaaring ma-misdeclare, sa P100 per kilo meron po tayong P45.78 million na pagbabasihan ng taripa [If we compute this, if 457.897 million kilos are misdeclared, if the cost of P100 per kilo, we have P45.78 million to base the tariff computation off from],” he added.

“Kung dapat po’y 40 percent ay naging 5 percent, so nawalan po tayo ng 35-percent tariff due to misdeclaration,” Briones said. In his computation, this would lead to a possible P16-billion revenue loss on imported pork for the last four years or around P4 billion annually.

For imported chicken products, Briones said 1.4 billion kilograms entered the country in the last four years. Of this volume, 910 million kilograms or 50 percent were declared as mechanically deboned chicken, fats, or offals.

“Hindi po tayo naniniwala na ito ay lahat ay mechanically deboned chicken, fats, or offal [We don’t believe that all of these are mechanically deboned chicken, fats, or offal],” he added.

“Kung dito sa 910 million kilos, 50 percent, let’s say, ang minisdeclare. At P90 per kilo, ang dapat pagbasihan ng taripa ay P40.9 million [If in the 910 million, 50 percent is misdeclared, at P90 per kilo, we can base the tariff computation on P40.9 million],” Briones

He projected that the government possibly lost P14.3 billion in potential tariff collection on chicken imports since 2018.

“So ang total po ng maaaring nawawala satin ay P7.6 billion per year due to misdeclaration [So the total revenue we are potentially losing is P7.6 billion due to misdeclaration],” Briones said, referring to imported pork and chicken products.

The Senate Committee of the Whole opened its inquiry upon the call of Senate President Vicente Sotto III, who lamented the alleged large-scale smuggling of agricultural products in the country.

“This situation has unfortunately aggravated further the slowdown in farm production and the untimely loss of income to the already pandemic-devastated farmers, not to mention a large-scale revenue loss for the government,” Sotto said in his opening statement.

JPV