The Philippine Bureau of Customs (BOC) expects less fees to be collected by freight forwarders for handling balikbayan box (containing household goods and personal effects) shipments once the new customs administrative order (CAO) on such shipments takes effect on December 25.
Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) project manager Atty. Althea Acas, in a press conference on December 13, said since balikbayan boxes are duty- and tax-free subject to certain conditions, fees on those shipments should drop by US$5 to $10 per box. Duties and taxes are currently part of fees paid by overseas Filipinos when they send their balikbayan boxes.
Asked if deconsolidators (forwarders handling the boxes in the Philippines) who previously attended the public hearing on the drafting of CAO 05-2016 signified their intent to cut their fees, Acas said “they are duty bound under the law to do that.”
READ: BOC, DOF sign IRR on duty, tax-free shipment of ‘balikbayan’ boxes
During the same press conference, BOC clarified some provisions of the CAO.
Under the order, qualified Filipinos while abroad may send their families or relatives, until the 4th degree of consanguinity, balikbayan boxes exempt from payment of duties and taxes as long as the total amount of goods sent per calendar year is P150,000, and provided the overseas Filipino only sends a total of three shipments a year. For each of the three shipments, however, the overseas Filipino may send as many boxes as he/she wishes.
Qualified Filipinos abroad – the only ones allowed to avail of the duty- and tax-free privilege — should accomplish two copies of the information sheet provided by BOC. One copy will be submitted to the consolidator (freight forwarder in the origin country) while another one should be placed in the balikbayan box. The information sheet, which will serve as the packing list, will be downloadable in the BOC website.
Acas said they have already talked to consolidators and deconsolidators to include the submission of information sheet in their workflow.
Since the information sheet will still be available on December 25, Acas said balikbayan shipments unloaded on December 25 will not be able to avail of the privilege.
The information sheet will also be used to check if items are of commercial quantity. To make sure senders are guided on the limit of number of items that they can send, Acas said BOC will post a list of allowed number of items as determined by trade regulatory agencies.
Senders supplying the wrong data in the information sheet will be subject to penalized.
Acas said boxes flagged red will undergo x-ray examination.
During the peak season, Acas said balikbayan shipments usually reach up to 80 forty-foot containers per day containing 350 boxes in Manila International Container Port alone. During non-peak, 30 to 40 forty-foot containers a day are unloaded.
Athena Dans, chair of the committee that drafted the CAO on balikbayan boxes, said a customs memorandum order providing supplemental regulations on CAO 05-2016 will be issued on December 25.
She said the system that will monitor each sender’s shipments is still being worked on. – Roumina Pablo
Image courtesy of hywards at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
