Garment firms, warehouse charged over unpaid taxes

The Bureau of Customs (BoC) on Wednesday brought charges against executives of a bonded warehouse and four garment companies for allegedly importing P272 million worth of textile products without paying a single centavo in taxes.

Charged for violating the Tariff and Customs Code were Angelito Perez, general manager of Filipino Hand Common Bonded Corp. (Filhand), Francisco Aniag, president of Sports and Swimwear Manufacturing, and his representative Sufronio de Luna.

Also facing smuggling charges are Rowena Viray, president of Southern Atlantic; Juvy Estrada of Square Gem Manufacturing; and Jerry Accad of JDAR Garments Corp.

Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez said the garment firms were members of Filhand, a bonded warehouse accredited by the BoC to import textile supplies for clothing and other garment products without paying taxes and duties.

Garments manufacturers affiliate themselves with bonded warehouses so they can bring in raw materials needed to manufacture their products. These companies are exempted from paying customs duties provided that the imported products are sold abroad within nine months.

According to Alvarez, Filhand member-companies did not pay taxes for various garment accessories they imported from May 2006 to January 2008.

He said the textile firms claimed that the imported goods covered by 158 warehousing entries were to be used as raw materials for their “exportable products”.

During inspection, the customs commissioner said the companies failed to present documents to support their claim that the imported goods were re-exported as finished products.

He said the companies should have paid P57.8 million in taxes and duties for the imported raw materials.

“There is a reason to believe that the missing raw materials ended up in the warehouses of some local garments manufacturers,” Alvarez said.

He said the operations of bonded warehouses are “widely believed to be a major case of revenue leakages.”

“That’s why we are very careful in giving accreditation to bonded warehouses. In fact, we have issued a moratorium on approving permits to bonded warehouses,” he said.

There are at present more than 150 BoC-accredited bonded warehouses operating nationwide.

Alvarez said the BoC had filed similar charges against two bonded warehouses, Skyland Manufacturing Corp. and Rajmin Garments Manufacturing Corp., for the same offense.

He said the companies illicitly diverted imported garment supplies worth P251 million to the local market and used spurious documents to make it appear that they exported the finished good.