The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) on Wednesday called on the Bureau of Customs (BoC) to speed up its audit of rice import transactions and collection of unpaid tariffs and penalties from erring importers. This comes after the bureau reported that it had slapped some 40 importers a total of P1.4 billion in additional tariffs and penalties for undervaluing their rice shipments between March and June 2019. The FFF commended the BoC for addressing the issue of undervaluation of rice imports after the group revealed that importers might have shortchanged the bureau of nearly P2.8 billion in tariff revenues since the enactment of the Rice Tariffication Law in March 2019. “The BoC report is probably just the tip of the iceberg,” said Raul Montemayor, FFF national manager, noting that the group’s analysis showed that undervaluation and misdeclaration continued and even worsened in 2020. “We hope the BoC will resolve all these cases quickly and finally end the practice of undervaluation,” Montemayor said.
