The Department of Agriculture is set to cancel issuance of importation permit on all agricultural products starting November 22, 2016, according to Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol.
Piñol ordered the immediate cancellation and recall of all issued importation permit to prevent rampant cases of recycling of old permits as a tool of technical smuggling in the country.
“While we encourage trade and commerce in the country, we also don’t want our farmers and the government to be at the losing end,” he said.
The agri chief said there is a discrepancy in the importation volume on good meat versus offal, as reports from Bureau of Customs showed there were higher importations on offal than good meat.
Undersecretary for Operations Ariel T. Cayanan said that there are some importers who ‘misdeclare’ their goods.
“You can see on the cut of the meat, wherein they already extend it to the arm but still declared it as offal to lessen their tariff,” Usec. Cayanan said.
Piñol also directed the creation of a technical working group that will take a look at these cases. He also wanted to revalidate the existing and non-existing importation permit from customs.
“Iyong iba kasi kukuha ng maraming import permits, tapos ipe-present lang kapag sinita (custom), kapag di sinita itatago at gagamitin sa susunod,” Piñol said adding that permits given are valid for only two months.
He assured legal importers won’t have to worry as long as they provide the documents needed, they will eventually release the permit within 24 hours.
“We are not stopping legal importation, we just want to make sure that the issued permits were validated,” Piñol said.
DA also proposed that importers should first be validated by the quarantine officer before they go to the customs.
Under the scheme, the Office of the Secretary will be responsible in the issuance of permit. The technical group will be composed of representatives from the Bureau of Plant Industry, Bureau of Animal Industry and National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS). ### (Kristel Merle, DA-AFID)
