THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) is set to impose in the next three weeks three major policies under its electronic-to-mobile (e2m) project.
These are the electronic lodgment of transshipment entries for sea and air freight, the electronic submission of export declaration, and the advance submission of air manifest. The policies have been pending for over a year now.
PortCalls sources said the e-lodgment of transshipment entries is set for June 1 for sea freight and June 16 for air freight while the implementation of the automated export declaration system will also be on June 1. The adoption of the advance submission of air manifests will likely start on June 16.
A closed-door meeting among officials of the BOC, accredited value-added service providers (VASPs) and representatives of various transport sectors was called yesterday to discuss implementation schedules, among other issues.
Automated export system
The BOC is still reviewing the draft customs memorandum order (CMO) covering the automated export declaration scheme. The order will be presented at an Export Development Council (EDC) meeting on May 27.
BOC is studying the proposal of the EDC and the VASPs to have parallel manual submission over a two-month period.
The agency is also sorting the issue of e-lodgment of export declarations/single administrative document (ED/SAD) of freeport locators. It appears that most ecozones would rather use the ED/SAD under the BOC automated export system and discontinue the system used by the Semiconductors and Electronics Industries of the Philippines as provided by BOC VASP E-Konek Pilipinas.
Air manifest
For the advance submission of air manifest, BOC is finalizing the CMO for the policy’s implementation.
Under the draft CMO, the deadline for submission of the electronic inward foreign manifest will be two hours before aircraft arrival for all flights originating in Asia, and one hour for flights with less than two hours’ flying time.
For flights originating in North or South America, and locations other than Asia and North and South America, the deadline is four hours prior to aircraft arrival in any Philippine airport.
For consolidated cargo manifests, flights originating within Asia have a submission deadline of at least an hour before aircraft arrival and flights originating in North or South America, at least two hours prior.
For other origins outside of the identified locations, the deadline is two hours before aircraft arrival in any Philippine port.
