The Sugar Monitoring and Anti-Smuggling Task Force will expand its operations and organize a prosecution team in its bid to eradicate sugar smuggling that has been pegged at P63 million since January this year.

The plans were disclosed by the Sugar Regulatory Administration at the Sugar Forum yesterday in Bacolod City where SRA chief Rafael Coscolluela said he hopes more planters associations will subscribe to the P1 per Lkg lien for the operations of the SMAS Task Force.

“We’re still hoping (more) will contribute so that everybody will bear the same burden and share the same credit,” he said. “As long as I’m there, the fund use will remain transparent and will only be used for the right things.”

A presentation by SRA executive assistant Butch Alisla showed that since it was organized in January, the SMAS Task Force has seized more than 40,000 bags of smuggled sugar in various ports around the country.

Coscolluela said that about P7 million has already been collected out of the P1 lien, enough to put in place an effective sugar monitoring system.

Under the expanded SMAS Task Force operations, the monitoring of “D” or World market sugar will already be covered as well as the physical movement of sugar throughout the country.

The SRA chief said all sectors affected by smuggling have agreed that leaving the job to the Bureau of Customs will not solve the problem.

“They (sectors) have all agreed to put in money. Nobody else is going to fight our battles for us,” Coscolluela said, adding that SRA wants to get the message across that retailers who will continue to buy smuggled sugar will be apprehended.

He said that efforts against sugar smuggling have contributed to the increase in prices of domestic sugar which have gone up by as much as P100 per Lkg since the start of the anti-smuggling operations, which has more than covered the P1 lien. 

As of April 10, domestic or “B” sugar prices have reached P1,195 per Lkg in Victorias, Lopez and Sagay mill districts.

Alisla, in his presentation, cited as constraint the failure of some planters associations and mills to subscribe to the P1 voluntary lien, and because collection began after the start of the anti-smuggling operations, the initial operations conducted were limited.

He also stressed the need to strengthen the prosecution aspect of the SMAS Task Force activities.*NLG

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