Vegetable Traders Truckers Complain “Excessive Taxes” Of BOC, PPA At Ports

La Trinidad, Benguet (June 21, 2019) — Vegetable traders and truckers lashed out at excessive collections by the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) and Bureau of Customs (BOC) in the Batangas and Matnog ports bleeding them dry each day.
Just for them to be prioritized in the loading of their products to the roll-on-roll-off (RO-RO) vessels bound for Visayas and Mindanao, they have to shell out P2,000-7,000 per truck, they claimed.
Vegetable traders and truckers from group “Tawid Dagat” claimed that upon reaching the Batangas and Matnog ports, PPA and BOC personnel collect the sum per truck just to be prioritized.
Failure to hand over these sums will delay the transportation of the perishable goods, they added.
A policy crafted during the Arroyo administration had instituted that trucks loaded with perishable goods, like highland vegetables and fruits, should not be unnecessarily delayed in the transport to their intended markets in Metro Manila and other parts of the country.
“We appeal to the concerned government agencies to check the malpractice of their personnel because such unwarranted collections without official receipts is against the existing policy that
trucks loaded with perishable goods should not be delayed in reaching their destinations,” the source called on to government.
Vegetable traders and truckers complain that they often suffer heavy losses because the perishable goods that are loaded in their trucks rot because of the delay when they refuse to shell out the amounts to the BOC, PPA.
Then the amounts would be passed on as cost to the prices of vegetables as a consequence.
Vegetable traders and truckers fear that if such alleged extortion activities continue, extorted amounts would hike forcing them to halt in their business that could create an artificial shortage of highland vegetables in the different markets around the country.
Benguet and some areas of Mt. Province and Ifugao supply at least 80 percent of the country’s highland vegetables market.

Amianan Balita Ngayon