Entry of Customs X-ray machines blocked BLURBAL THRUSTS Louie Logarta 09/16/2010

Entry of Customs X-ray machines blocked

BLURBAL THRUSTS

Louie Logarta

09/16/2010
Bureau of Customs (BoC) officials have resorted to the usual finger-pointing in the face of allegations that some P8 billion worth of supposedly state-of-the-art mobile X-ray machines said to have been acquired in the Arroyo administration by former Commissioner Napoleon Morales remain underutilized, with a number of them simply gathering dust, and worse rusting away inside various holding areas all over the country.

The sophisticated equipment, which has the capability of scanning the contents of a 40-foot container van inside a few minutes that would have taken at least one day with the manual system that has been the norm in the BoC since its creation in 1902, was reportedly purchased from China at sweetheart rates at about the same time the ill-fated $329-billion NBN-ZTE deal was being hatched.

Customs officials back then justified the acquisition of the X-rays in order to speed up the examination of an estimated 3,000 containers that enter the Philippines daily and correspondingly help increase the collections of duties and taxes being levied by the government on importations.

In a recent interview, acting Director Jose Yuchongco of the Customs Enforcement and Security Service

accused the International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) which handles the arrastre in the Manila International Container Port (MICP) of blocking the release of several X-ray machines from their warehouses. He claimed that ICTSI was doing so because they planned to buy their own equipment so they could charge importers additional for the service..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100916com4.html