Cebu will soon be flooded with imported sugar once the cargo of 564 million kilos of refined sugar from Thailand is released by the Bureau of Customs (BoC) from the Cebu International Port (CIP) where it is now stocked.
In a letter to Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez, Romeo Jimenez, director of Group Marketing Operations Department of the National Food Authority (NFA), said the imported sugar is under the NFA's Private Sector Finance (PSF) sugar important program for 2010 under the Tax Expenditure Subsidy (TES) scheme. The new scheme was adopted by the NFA under the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III, who assumed office last July 1. BoC Port of Cebu District Collector Ronnie Silvestre said while the imported sugar reportedly arrived in Cebu from Thailand last July 31, they remained at the CIP. The imported sugar, Jimenez told Alvarez, was shipped to Cebu though the MV Xetha Bhum V.8578 and consigned to NFA "for the account of TMA Commodities Enterprises." Silvestre and assistant assessment chief Florante Ricarte said the NFA and TMA are waiting for the endorsement of their request from the BoC Collection service in Manila for the deferred payment of duties and taxes. On the other hand, the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) under lawyer Rico Rey Holganza has not yet received a copy of the import entry from the consignee.
