THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) will shut down
all entry encoding centers (EECs) outside Metro Manila by
November 30 starting with four major sub-ports — Cebu,
Mactan, Davao and Clark.
Customs deputy commissioner Alexander Arevalo told PortCalls
the agency decided to push through with the shutdown to give
its accredited value-added service providers (VASP) a free
hand in handling all customs entries.
He added the decision also heeds the direct order from the
Office of the President to shut down all EECs to reduce human
error in customs entries.
The move, Arevalo said, is a full migration from manual lodgment
to electronic.
The EECs are also no longer on standby.
“I think it is time to phase out the EECs outside of
Manila since we already surmounted all the major challenges
in vital ports such as MICP (Manila International Container
Port), NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport) and POM (Port
of Manila) when we shut down their EECs late last month,”
Arevalo said.
“In the ports outside Manila, particularly the four
mentioned, the BOC will be introducing minimal changes like
the shift in lodgment from manual to electronic in order not
to rock the boat too much,” Arevalo explained, adding
that the calibrated move will lessen resistance and problems
that might arise as a result of the shutdown.
The shift in the submission of manifest from manual to electronic
also starts November 30 in the said ports.
Arevalo said BOC officials met with port stakeholders last
week to discuss the impending phaseout and received favorable
response.
The BOC and its three accredited VASPs — InterCommerce
Network Service, Cargo Data Exchange Center and E-Konek —
will troop to Cebu to brief customs personnel and brokers
(Nov 21) and other stakeholders (Nov 22).
The same will be done for other areas shortly.
BOC is also looking at expanding the VASP operations to other
ports without EECs such as Subic, Batangas, Cagayan de Oro
tentatively by month’s end to achieve the agency’s
goal of synchronizing port and BOC operations.
By end-November, the number of closed EECs in various ports
would have jumped to eight. The eight EECs handle 80% to 85%
of all lodgments at the BOC. The remaining five EECs, handling
the balance of transactions at the BOC, are scheduled for
shutdown not later than year-end.
The EECs at the POM and MICP have been closed since October
23 while the one at the NAIA was shut down November 5.
Also on November 5, the BOC began rejecting entries filed
by customs brokers unless they are registered with any of
the VASPs.
BOC chief: In near future, no VASP
registration for corporations
THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) will soon disallow
the registration of corporations and brokerage houses using
their in-house customs brokers with any of its value-added
service providers (VASPs) until amendments to Republic Act
9280 or the Customs Brokers Act 0f 2004 are approved, according
to Customs commissioner Napoleon Morales.
The decision, he said, complies with RA provisions that allow
only individual brokers to customs clear.
“Until the existing law is amended, we will only allow
individual brokers to register with our VASPs,” Morales
said in an interview.
RA 9280 regulates the practice of the customs brokerage profession.
The law provides that customs broker practice is a professional
service and as such, no firm, company, or association may
be registered or licensed as such.
There are ongoing moves to amend the law that will allow corporations
through their in-house customs brokers to customs clear.
Morales said although the BOC for the moment allows registration
of corporations, the bureau will in the next couple of days
inform its VASPs of its decision to register only individual
brokers in the VASP.
Morales said it is temporarily allowing an employed broker
to register with the VASP as long as he/she is the authorized
broker of a corporation and enters his/her personal information
instead of the corporation’s.
The VASPs now handle the lodgment of import entries at the
Port of Manila, the Manila International Container Port and
the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. By next month, they
will also do so in Cebu, Mactan, Davao and Clark.
Last week, Chamber of Customs Brokers, Inc (CCBI) vice president
Ruby Riga said the chamber requested BOC to allow VASP registration
of only individual customs brokers, regardless of whether
the broker is employed by a corporation or not.
CCBI said it wants to eventually limit the scope of VASP registration
to independent brokers without any affiliation to brokerage
houses or corporations outside of the allowed broker-client
relationship.
DHL Express Philippines will intensify efforts
to urge legislators to pass the Anti-Smuggling Bill, pending
in Congress for the last several years.
DHL country manager Lawrence Llamzon told PortCalls there
is need to immediately pass the proposed legislation to lure
big investors to come to the Philippines and arrest the downturn
in import and export volumes.
Llamzon said that for the past two years logistics firms have
been pushing for the passage of the law, which includes a
provision for an increase in the country’s de minimis
level. This, he said, will attract overseas customers to send
more high-value commodities to the Philippines.
De minimis refers to the minimum value below which goods in
shipment are exempt from cumbersome Customs scrutiny and documentation
procedures.
“We have been strongly lobbying for the passage of the
bill for some time now. Hopefully with the new Congress, we
could get it as it will really boost the country’s competitiveness
in the international market,” Llamzon explained.
“Any delay in the passage of the legislation will continue
to douse cold water on potential large-scale investors and
will again reinforce earlier impressions that the country
is anti-trade,” he added.
The country’s de minimis level compares with Thailand
and Malaysia’s between $20 and $35.
Llamzon said the de minimis level should be increased to at
least P100 from the current P10 ($0.20) so more shipments
are not subject to customs scrutiny. This, he said, will in
turn increase volumes.
THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) will conduct
a dry run for a 30-minute shipment clearance system. This
is in preparation for the implementation of National Single
Window (NSW) and the Asean Single Window (ASW) transactions
in late 2008.
Although the scheme is temporary, a good head start in its
implementation will do well for the Philippines particularly
since its NSW system is used as model by the Asean-member
economies for the creation of their own NSW system. Full implementation
is set for 2015.
Speaking before customs commissioners and director generals
in the Asia-Europe Customs meeting last week, Customs commissioner
Napoleon Morales said the scheme will used in the first two
years of the implementation of the ASW by the first six countries
Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore
and Thailand next year, and by the last four — Cambodia,
Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam in 2012.
“Asean Single Window is just to streamline and standardize
information to expedite the clearance of cargo in Asean in
order to achieve a 30-minute shipment clearance time. Frankly,
we have a long way to go to achieve this ambitious program
but with the support of all the 10 customs administrations
of the Asean and our partner customs administrations from
the European Community, we shall be able to achieve our vision
of an Asean world-class customs service on or before 2015,”
Morales said.
The Philippines is pilot testing with Thailand the initial
implementation of the ASW and expects full exchange of customs
data by next year.
Asean finance ministers last year agreed that the NSW should
be fully implemented by the first six countries, including
the Philippines, by next year.
The NSW entails the single submission of data and information,
single and synchronous processing of data and information
and single decision-making for customs release and clearance
undertaken with other governments with direct contact with
customs such as agriculture, transport, and trade.
The NSW will be the common, neutral, secure and trusted hub
for business, industries and government to communicate, exchange
and process trade and logistics-related information for the
efficient clearance of goods and commodities.
PORT operator Asian Terminals, Inc. (ATI)
is feeling the pinch of the strong peso after it posted a
1.8% drop in consolidated revenues for the first nine months
of the year to P3.065 billion from P3.120 billion last year.
Consolidated net income was also lower by 4.9% to P509.1 million
compared to a year earlier.
In a report submitted to the Philippine Stock Exchange, ATI
said the unfavorable effect of the strong peso amounting to
P174.8 million greatly affected its revenue generation. This
is despite South Harbor container and non-container volume
growth of 9.6% and 10.1%, respectively, which contributed
a 2.2% hike in revenues from port operations.
ATI said the increase in volumes was not enough to arrest
declining revenues from domestic operations, down 29.9%.
Revenues from non-port operations also decreased 24.2% due
to the volume and exchange rate factor.
Consolidated costs and expenses for the nine-month period
were up 0.2% or P3.7 million from P2.012 billion in the same
period last year. This has been attributed to high labor costs
which grew 5.8% to P618.5 million, and equipment maintenance
and use, up 6.1% to P307.5 million due to higher electricity
and parts usage.
Other expenses, on the other hand, were 4% lower due to fewer
requirements for repairs and maintenance of buildings and
facilities, decrease in provisions for obsolescence, and doubtful
accounts and decrease in professional fees. Depreciation dipped
4% or P15.9 million with the full depreciation and disposal
of certain assets. Lower volumes in non-port operations resulted
in lower rentals by 6.9% and general transport expenses by
0.8%.
Consolidated finance cost of P291.7 million was 19.5% lower
due to the reduction in long-term debt to P3 billion as of
end September 2007 from P3.4 billion last year and to lower
interest rates this year.
Consolidated finance income dipped 28.3% to P47 million for
the period in review from P65.5 million as cash and cash equivalents
and interest rates were lower in the current year compared
to last year. Unrealized net gains on derivatives instruments
of P31.5 million were higher by 7.7% or P2.3 million due to
the foreign exchange factor.
INTERNATIONAL Container Terminal Services,
Inc. (ICTSI) announced the appointments of new officers for
Manila International Container Terminal (MICT): Barsabias
Lopez Jr., Claims and Insurance Assistant Manager; Joel Pajuyo,
Anchorage Assistant Manager; Julliver Llamado as Crane Maintenance
Section Assistant Manager and Sixto Tandoc as Safety Assistant
Manager.
Lopez joined ICTSI in 1989 as Legal Aide Researcher. He was
promoted to Industrial Relations Assistant in 1990, and was
designated Industrial Relations Supervisor in 1994. He was
named Employee Relations Officer in 1997, and was laterally
transferred to the Insurance and Claims Section in 2006 as
Insurance and Claims Officer prior to his promotion. Lopez
completed his undergraduate study in Liberal Arts from St.
Anthony’s College in San Jose, Antique. He took up Bachelor
of Laws at the Ateneo de Manila Law School, and completed
the degree at the Far Eastern University College of Law.
Pajuyo joined ICTSI in 1998 as Assistant Operations Coordinator.
He was promoted to Administration Supervisor in 2001, and
was Anchorage Superintendent from 2004 to 2007. He holds a
degree in Electrical Engineering from Perpetual Help College.
Llamado started in 1990 as electrical technician trainee.
He was promoted foreman in 1994 and supervisor in 1997. He
was named superintendent in the Crane Maintenance Section
in 1998. He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering at the
Technological Institute of the Philippines.
Tandoc, on the other hand, was MICT’s Safety’s
Officer-in-Charge prior to his promotion. He joined the Company
in 2001 as Engineering Inspector, and was promoted to Safety
Superintendent in 2002. Prior to joining ICTSI, Tandoc has
18 years of engineering experience with several companies
in the Middle East, including the ports of Dammam and Jeddah
in Saudi Arabia. Tandoc graduated with a degree in Mechanical
Engineering from Mapua Institute of Technology. He is a life
member of the Philippine Society of Mechanical Engineers.
