Customs earns additional P9.7 M in ‘hot rice’ auction
The Bureau of Customs earned P9.7 million more than their expected P223.6 million in yesterday’s public auction of 336 containers of smuggled rice held at the Mariners’ Court.
The public auction which finished earlier than the previous auctions raked in a total of P233,413,083.60 from the 37 lots, 4.4 percent higher than their floor price of P223,641,600.00.
Including the proceeds of the auction, BOC district collector Edward dela Cuesta said they expect to exceed their month’s target of P752,000,000 by P185,000,000.
Yesterday’s public auction was the third auction BOC held for the 1,169 containers of smuggled rice with a total of 607,880 bags of 50 kilograms of rice.
“As of now, we have remaining 491 containers for bidding or about 7,880 bags which we should be able to auction by middle of September,” dela Cuesta said.
Dante Maranan, chief of the BOC Auction and Disposal Division said they estimate the loss of rice bags from pilferage and damage at only 722 bags (450 damaged and 272 lost).
Article continues after this advertisementMaranan said the loss is very negligible and should not affect the expected earnings from the auctions.
Article continues after this advertisementDela Cuesta said that had the container vans declared properly, the importers could have paid around P400 million in taxes.
ETB Agro Commercial, Paracao General Merchandise, Charline General Merchandise, Dorongan Punta Women’s Farm, Intercontinental Grains and Dragon Grains Trading won the most bids yesteday with three winning bids.
Other bidders Nursery Farmers Irrigation, Inc., RPS General Merchandise, Queencar Marketing, Pacific Rim Harvester, Annie Tobias, Malingas Multipurpose Cooperative, RMJR Grains Center and Angel Gabriel Trading won two bids each while Queen Mary Bakeshop, Boss Marcing General Merchandise and Faerdig General Merchandise won one bid each.
Dela Cuesta said yesterday’s auction was smoother and faster because they used computerized encoding which are then projected for the bidders to see.
He said they are targeting to finish the auctions before harvest season which could impact on their earnings.
