(Source: Inside Retail Philippines | 06 February 2017)
High-end electronic goods worth millions of pesos, allegedly smuggled into the Philippines and being sold online, have been seized by the Bureau of Customs (BOC).
Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon says the bureau acted on intelligence reports that online shop Kim Store was selling articles under suspicious importation schemes.
Intelligence officer Joel Pinawin says Kim Store is owned by a Filipino-Chinese businessman identified as “Francis”, based in Binondo.
Pinawin says the staff of Kim Store’s depot in Tonda, Manila, failed to present documents to the Customs Intelligence and Investigation (CIIS) unit. In the BOC raid on the building, various brands and models of high-end smartphones, laptop computers, cameras, tablets devices, audio accessories and security gadgets were seized, says CIIS director Neil Estrella.
The items are now under padlock in the Kim Store depot, guarded by CIIS agents.
“There are plenty of cases of high-end communication and electronic gadgets being smuggled into the country through misdeclaration schemes, a top form of smuggling used to defraud and avoid paying correct duties and taxes to the government,” says Estrella.
He says the BOC often raids warehouses, storehouses and depots.
The Kim Store Facebook page has 1.5 million followers, reports Rappler. On the day of the raid, the Facebook page said the store was undergoing a “system upgrade” and there would be delivery delays for transactions.
Read more: https://insideretail.ph/customs-officials-raid-online-shop-depot/
