The Philippine Clearing House Corporation (PCHC) and several banks have agreed to a Bureau of Customs (BOC) request to extend banking hours 24/7 to accommodate the flow of stakeholder payments of customs duties and taxes.
In Customs Memorandum Circular No 45-2016 dated March 23, Customs commissioner Alberto Lina, circulated a letter written by Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) Operations Committee chairman Abraham T. Co advising the customs bureau that the PCHC has already implemented Project Abstract Secure 5 (PAS 5), which will enable the 24/7 host-to-host interface of banks and BOC’s Online Release System (OLRS).
Dated March 7, the BAP letter said the PCHC rolled out PAS 5 on January 11, 2016 in support of BOC initiatives to provide extended working hours to stakeholders. BOC last year began a 12-hour work scheme running from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Banks that have started implementing the project are Deutsche Bank, Security Bank, AUB, Metrobank, RCBC, BDO, and East West.
“The banks have likewise advised their importer clients. Other banks will soon follow,” BAP’s Co said.
The banking community’s support had earlier been formalized in an agreement signed by the BAP and BOC indicating that BAP will adopt and implement PAS 5.
PCHC will be the exclusive service provider for the encryption and transmission of the abstracts of collection reports from the authorized agent banks (AABs) to the BOC. PCHC will provide a secure electronic messaging facility between the BOC and the AABs in the collection and confirmation of duties and taxes paid by the importers.
PAS 5 provides adequate security safeguards to the collection of revenues, ensures the propriety of official documents, and puts in place a system that guarantees limiting access to information on these transactions to authorized representatives of BAP and BOC.
Lina has been requesting banks to extend operating hours and to open on Saturdays to expedite release of shipments. Bank transactions of stakeholders are usually limited to five days a week and only until 3pm.
Rolando Quiambao, president and chief executive officer of Nonpareil International Freight and Cargo Service, Inc., told PortCalls in a text message that “one show stopper of importers and brokers to clear shipments is when customs duties/taxes payment miss the cut-off of banks,” adding that reflecting the timely payment of duties and taxes in the BOC system is “obviously a critical point in customs clearance.”
“The extension will help importers to be successful in releasing their shipments immediately. In effect, it will also lessen storage, demurrage, and extra related expenses,” Quiambao noted. – Roumina Pablo
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
