On January 3, 2016, port stakeholders may begin availing of the new decentralized revolving fund (RF) payment scheme of the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) when paying invoices and billing for cargo and vessel charges.
As a general rule, PPA collects fees and charges on a “cash and carry” basis. The exception to this, under a previous PPA memorandum circular (MC 3-2010), is when post users maintain a centralized or decentralized RF facility to ease clearance of cargoes and vessels, avoid incurring late charges and penalties, and avoid the risks associated with carrying substantial amounts of cash.
Under the centralized RF facility, the port user is assigned one debtor code and shall maintain only one RF PPA-wide. With the decentralized RF facility, the port user is assigned a debtor code for each area of operation or servicing Port Management Office (PMO) and shall maintain separate RF per servicing PMO.
Under the new PPA MC No. 15-2015, the RF is now completely decentralized and open to all port users who have to pay invoices or vessel charges.
A customer who wants to avail of the program is required to maintain with PPA (or the servicing PMO, if applicable) a minimum cash deposit equivalent to its average 15-day transaction volume.
The decentralized RF should be replenished every week or whenever the balance reaches 20% of the required minimum deposit in order to ensure that users’ transactions are adequately covered.
If the balance falls below the 20% threshold, the system will not create an RF invoice and the RF customer will be automatically treated as a cash-paying customer.
The user’s RF privileges will be restored once the fund is replenished and the minimum deposit balance requirement is met.
Interested parties may register with PPA. They will be assigned a Debtor Code for each area of operation or servicing PMO, and must maintain a separate RF per servicing PMO. The servicing PMO will approve the application, and will be creating, generating, and transmitting the RF invoices to the customers. The servicing PMO should also periodically verify the RF balance of their customers to ensure compliance with the minimum maintaining balance.
MC 15-2015 repeals MC 3-2010. – Roumina Pablo
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