Chamber of Customs Brokers, Inc. (CCBI) president Atty. Ferdinand Nague is encouraging all member customs brokers to coordinate with their value-added service providers (VASPs) in preparing for the implementation of the chamber’s P10 lodgment fee program by October 1.
In an advisory, Nague noted that pursuant to CCBI Board Resolution No. 04, series of 2017, which takes effect next month, “all customs brokers lodging formal entries shall contribute to the CCBI general fund a fee of Php10 per formal entry lodged via the accredited VASPs.”
Customs brokers need to deposit an initial amount to CCBI’s BDO savings account to be able to pay the lodgment fee. The fund will cover three types of formal entry lodgment—consumption, transit, and warehousing—but not yet exports. It will be collected from lodgments made at all 17 customs districts.
According to the program’s primer, customs brokers must deposit at least P1,000 in CCBI’s BDO bank account. If a customs broker uses more than one VASP, a separate deposit must be made for each one.
Customs brokers then need to email or fax a copy of the deposit slip to CCBI’s secretariat, indicating the customs broker’s name and tax identification number, as well as the VASP he uses. CCBI will then issue an official receipt for the payment, and the receipt can be either sent to the payer via email or picked up at the CCBI office.
CCBI will encode or upload the payment to the VASP’s payment gateway. The lodgment fee will be debited with every formal entry submitted to Bureau of Customs’ electronic-to-mobile (e2m) system.
The VASP will also send a monthly ledger of all the formal entry lodgments, showing both positive and negative balance.
“In the event that the prepaid fund is not sufficient, VASP will continue to submit formal entries to E2M and record the transaction in the system for CCBI monitoring. CCBI will send SOA (statement of account) to the customs broker-member for fund replenishment,” the organization said.
Approved by members a decade ago and formerly called the amelioration fund, the lodgment fee program was stalled by a lack of collection mechanism. CCBI earlier signed a memorandum of agreement with BOC’s three accredited VASPs—Cargo Data Exchange Center, E-Konek Pilipinas, Inc., and InterCommerce Network Services, Inc.—to implement the program.
The fee is meant to support operations of the chamber. CCBI vice president for professional development Atty. Norberto Castillo, in a presentation during the program’s relaunch on June 14, said the lodgment fee and other membership dues will be spent on general office management; members’ subsidy for professional development seminars and conventions; expanded members’ benefits such as medical and group insurance; and free legal assistance.
Castillo said CCBI needs to generate additional funds as the annual fee of P500 and the monthly dues of P100 are not enough to finance association projects and programs. He noted that CCBI generates only P15,000 per month in collection, with the amount increasing only during the organization’s elections.
The pooled lodgment fee will also be used to campaign for the amendment of Section 106 (d), or the declarant provision, of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA). Under the provision, engaging the services of customs brokers becomes optional two years after the CMTA is passed. The law was signed in May 2016.
CCBI’s Cebu and Davao chapters have actually been collecting amelioration fees for years now. Cebu customs brokers pay P10 and their Davao counterparts, P50.
The P10 lodgment fee to be imposed by the CCBI national chapter is on top of the amelioration fee being collected in Cebu and Davao. Nague said the lodgment fee program has been discussed with both chapters, and that it will be up to them to reduce the fee if they so wish.
CCBI is projecting additional funds of P1 million a month from the collection of the lodgment fee, based on an estimated 100,000 lodgments a month provided by VASPs.
Nague earlier said the program will be audited, and a fund manager and an external auditor hired to manage the fund. Members will also be given updates about the fund during meetings and seminars.
Nague clarified that the lodgment fee is a personal fee levied on customs brokers and should not be passed on to their clients. – Roumina Pablo
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