Steel firm, execs slapped with 2nd smuggling rap in 3 months

MANILA, Philippines–The Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Thursday filed another smuggling case before the Department of Justice (DOJ) against Stellent Corporation and its executives this time for the illegal importation of stainless steel sheets in September last year worth P7.4 million.

Facing a complaint for violation of Sections 3602 of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines as amended by Republic Act 7651 and Article 122 in relation to Articles 171 and 183 of the Revised Penal Code were its executives namely Chairman of the Board Rico Rigor Cayunda Cinco, board members Charmayne De La Pena Angeles, Asuncion Peralta Angeles, Maria Rhezy Hada and Ruge Robert Illada and customs broker Ruby Ballesteros.

Based on the complaint, the corporation illegally imported six 20-footer vans of stainless steel sheets which they declared as steel sheet piles.

However, upon examination by the BOC, it turned out to be stainless steel sheets, which are more expensive than that of sheet piles.

Steel sheet pilings, said the BOC are mainly used as ground support in building construction while stainless steel sheets have more uses aside from construction such as in machinery and vehicle manufacturing, container manufacturing and shipbuilding and bridge construction.

“Aside from the false declaration, the declared customs value of shipment that arrived in the Port of Manila in September 2014 [was] only P433,156 when, in fact, as found by the examiner, the customs value is P809,955. Duties and taxes were declared only at P433,156 while the shipment’s actual duties and taxes [amount] to P1, 004,405,” the complaint said.

“By misdeclaring the stainless steel sheet as steel sheet pipes, Stellent was not only trying to bring into the country a more expensive steel product illegally but [it was] also evading payment of the lawful duties and taxes. Steel sheet piles are subject to zero tariff under the Asean-China Free Trade Area Preferential Tariff while stainless steel sheets are subject to three percent tariff,” it added.

Early this year, the BOC filed a case against Stellent Corporation and its executives together with licensed broker John Philip Malinao Yap for trying to illegally import 15 20-foot container vans of steel angle bars worth P14.3 million from China without the necessary import commodity clearance from the Department of Trade and Industry’s Bureau of Product Standards.

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