PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to fully implement the electronic-to-mobile/import assessment system (e2m/IAS) at the country’s two main ports by December 1, 2009.
At a recent cabinet meeting, the President said the e2m/IAS should be running solo by yearend and not on parallel mode with Asycuda, as is the situation now.
The meeting was attended by Customs commissioner Napoleon Morales, the district collectors of the Port of Manila and the Manila International Container Port, and the chief of the formal entry division also of the two ports.
“The message was very clear,” Customs deputy commissioner Alexander Arevalo said in a transmission sent to stakeholders over the weekend.
“We are expected to have the PASS (Payment Application Secure System) 5 and e2m customs in solo full operations by December 1, 2009,” Arevalo, the BOC official in charge of the BOC’s automation program, stressed.
Francis Lopez, president of BOC-accredited value-added service provider (VASP) InterCommerce Network Services (INS), said the order from Malacanang is doable since the only problem area in the system now is manifest submission.
“Aside from manifest submission… we see no more technical glitch with the payment system and the transshipment aspect,” Lopez said.
A meeting with Arevalo is scheduled tomorrow (November 3, 2009) so all kinks may be ironed out.
The implementation of IAS covers lodgment through VASPs; the Client Profile Registration System; electronic manifest system; clearance of formal entry system (consumption and warehousing); use of PASS 5; application of non-cash payments, consisting of tax exemption certificates, import entry declaration, tax debit memos, import entry declaration /advanced payment and deferred payment of government accounts through the e2m payment system; on-line release system; and license and clearance System involving government agencies ready to upload their licenses, clearances and other authorizations to the e2m Customs.
