Stakeholders can now pay their Bureau of Customs (BOC) accreditation fee online through payment service provider PayMaya, BOC said in an advisory on August 11.
This option is available after PayMaya last June 26 started to implement an online payment system for the collection, transmittal, and remittance of customs fees and charges.
READ: BOC online payment system begins June 26
This comes on the heels of the June 11 signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between BOC, Bureau of the Treasury, Development Bank of the Philippines, and PayMaya Philippines, Inc. on the implementation of the online payment system.
Under the MOA, PayMaya will accept payments from BOC clients of miscellaneous fees and charges, other than customs duties and taxes, through its PayMaya’s Payment Solutions (PPS).
PPS services include Online Checkout that accepts credit/debit cards for local and cross-border payments, Bills Payment via PayMaya app, Pay by PayMaya, PayMaya One POS (point-of-sale) terminal that accepts credit/debit cards and PayMaya QR payments, and Smart Padala Centers Bills Payment.
To pay through PayMaya, the client may indicate his preference for online payment in BOC’s Customer Care Portal (https://client.customs.gov.ph/). The client will then receive via email the invoice showing the fees or charges due and the corresponding amount.
The customer should then click on “Pay,” provide all the relevant cardholder information, then click “Complete Order.” The client may opt to save the card information for future use before confirming payment.
Once confirmed, the payment will be processed within 2 to 3 seconds, and the client will receive the transaction status. He can choose to give his email address or SMS number to receive the transaction receipt.
This online payment system is in compliance with Republic Act (RA) No. 11032 (Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Services Delivery Act of 2018), which mandates all offices and agencies of the government to improve transaction systems and procedures, as well as with RA 8792, also known as the E-Commerce Act of 2000, BOC said.
The BOC said it will continue to adopt measures necessary to facilitate and minimize disruption to the supply chain amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
BOC assistant commissioner and spokesperson Atty. Vincent Philip Maronilla in an earlier online update said the customs bureau “will no longer shift to a manual system and we will maintain the online systems already.”
BOC discourages face-to-face transactions as it moves towards online transactions to secure the health and safety of customs employees and stakeholders alike and “protect the integrity of the entire process” of the customs bureau, Maronilla said.
Last May, BOC said it will also implement more information and communications technology (ICT) projects to speed up trade facilitation, strengthen border security, and protect government revenues in response to the “new normal.”
These systems include the online payment of customs fees such as processing fee for registration of importers and customs brokers, online inventory management system for off-dock container yard/container freight stations, online inventory management system for customs bonded warehouses, a passenger customs clearance system at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Electronic Tracking of Containerized Cargo, and the continuous stabilization of the BOC’s Electronic-to-Mobile (e2m) system.
The P5.5-billion Philippines Customs Modernization Project proposed by the World Bank was also approved this year by the National Economic and Development Authority Board. The project seeks to improve efficiency of customs and reduce trade costs.
