FOLLOWING vehement opposition from shippers, the Bureau of Customs has deferred implementation of the advance inward foreign manifest ruling.
Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales told Port Users Confederation (PUC) officials late last week that the bureau is deferring until further notice the implementation of the measure until all issues have been ironed out.
The advance inward foreign manifest ruling which was to have been originally implemented last Friday, shippers said they were completely in the dark over its operational guidelines.
Under Customs Administrative Order 1-2007, all shipping lines, non-vessel operating common carriers, cargo consolidators, co-loaders and breakbulk agents will have to provide the BOC accurate data on incoming vessels and cargoes at any of the country’s ports 12 hours prior to vessel arrival through electronic transfer.
A recent amendment to that CAO now requires entries filed by all parties to be transmitted to any of the value-added service providers (VASP) accredited by the BOC.
The four VASPs are, however, still undergoing testing.
An official for one the VASPs expressed surprise over the BOC’s declaration that it was going to implement the advance manifest ruling last Friday.
“The advance manifest ruling requirement is not even a priority for us VASPs. For now, our focus is on parallel test runs with client/brokers and importers before the live implementation of the online lodgement of import entries,” the VASP official said.
