All once-a-year Philippine importers shall now apply for accreditation directly with the Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) Account Management Office (AMO).
This is after BOC in Customs Memorandum Order (CMO) No. 20-2019 revoked CMO 44-2009, which had provided the rules for the Customs Profile Registration System (CPRS) registration of once-a-year importers.
According to CMO 20-2019, all importers and once-a-year importers shall apply for accreditation directly with AMO, “strictly complying with the existing CMOs and other rules and regulations on accreditation…”
It noted that “there is a need to centralize the accreditation of all importers under AMO for the uniformity of requirements and better/close monitoring and coordination.”
CMO 20-2019, signed by Customs commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero on April 30 and effective immediately, revokes or amends inconsistent provisions of existing CMOs and rules and regulations.
AMO is the office which handles the accreditation of importers and registration of customs brokers.
Under CMO 20-2019, AMO shall set the accreditation procedure, the amount of fees payable, and the documentary requirements for individual, company, corporation, partnership or cooperative.
Duly registered/accredited once-a-year importers are given the option to use their existing registration/accreditation until this expires, or apply for accreditation as a regular importer with AMO under existing CMOs.
AMO shall also create and maintain a compliance monitoring database of the accredited individual, company, corporation, partnership, or cooperative and their shipments. All shipments must contain the description of the goods and undergo 100% physical examination.
For effective monitoring, AMO is also required to submit a monthly report to the Office of the Commissioner (OCOM) on the operations of the accredited importers covered by CMO 20-2019.
BOC has recently transferred from AMO to the district collection offices the applications for renewal of accreditation of customs brokers as well as CPRS activation of entities accredited by other government agencies.
Guerrero noted that decentralization aims “to process the renewal and activation of accreditation in one day,” and that the plan is to have only the application of importers and consignees pass through the OCOM for approval. – Roumina Pablo
