Starting December 22, Philippine importers and brokers will have another option to make payments to the Bureau of Customs (BOC) when filing transactions with the electronic-to-mobile (e2m) system.
BOC will allow importers and brokers to open Prepaid Accounts with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), aside from the required Payment Application Secure System Version 5.0 (PASS5) for certain payments.
Under Customs Memorandum Order No. 27-2014 signed November 27, BOC said the move is in line with the agency’s reforms in the coming months that will require electronic filing and payment through the e2m.
These reforms include all transhipment entries, including shipments from local ports to Philippine Economic Zone Authority zones currently documented by manually generated transhipment permits, and certain Customs transactions still manually processed.
Under CMO 27-2014, importers and brokers may open prepaid accounts, “but are not obliged to do so.”
Importers and brokers may open and maintain one or more prepaid accounts, and will be able to specify from which prepaid account payments should be made on a per transaction basis.
The prepaid account can be opened in any collection district and used for payment in other collection districts, regardless of where the prepared account was opened.
The memo noted that customs brokers may use their prepaid account to transmit payments to BOC on behalf of their importer clients, but will be subject to Republic Act 9280, Section 30, which states that “no customs brokers shall advance and finance on behalf of their client-importers the payment of duties and taxes, arrastre charges, wharfage dues, storage fee, and other port charges.”
When transhipment entries are filed through the e2m system, importers or brokers will be able to pay transhipment fees from their prepaid accounts. BOC said it will issue a separate memorandum order regarding the requirements for transhipment entries to PEZA zones to be filed through e2m.
BOC said it is currently working with PEZA to make a “totally electronic processing system for all PEZA import” by January next year.
The prepaid account registration form is available at the Collections Division or in the case of the sub-port, in the cashier.
The form will then be brought to any of the 15 LBP branches nationwide identified by BOC, to make a deposit of any amount into the prepaid account. The fund in the account cannot be withdrawn but can be transferred from one prepaid account to another prepaid account under the same holder’s name, at any of the 15 identified LBP branches. – Roumina Pablo
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
