Philippine Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero has ordered all Bureau of Customs (BOC) officials to strictly implement the provision on implied abandonment under the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA).
Guerrero, in an unnumbered memorandum dated January 8 and signed January 11, said this is to further BOC’s efforts “to address port congestion and to improve revenue collection.”
The Customs chief particularly pointed to Section 1129 (Abandonment, Kinds and Effects of) (b), (c) and (d) of Republic Act No. 10863 or the CMTA. This section specifically defines cases considered as implied abandonment.
Section 1129 (b) states that imported goods are deemed abandoned “when the owner, importer, consignee, or interested party after due notice, fails to file the goods declaration within the prescribed period in Section 407 of this Act: Provided, That the term goods declaration shall include provisional or incomplete goods declaration deemed valid by the Bureau as provided in Section 403 of this Act.
“For this purpose, it is the duty of the District Collector to post a list of all packages discharged and their consignees, whether electronically or physically in the District Office, or send a notice to the consignee within five days from the date of discharge.”
Section 1129 (c) states, “Having filed such goods declaration, the owner, importer, consignee or interested party after due notice, fails to pay the assessed duties, taxes and other charges thereon, or, if the regulated goods failed to comply with Section 117 of this Act, within fifteen days from the date of final assessment: Provided, That if such regulated goods are subject of an alert order and the assessed duties, taxes and other charges thereof are not paid within fifteen days from notification by the Bureau of the resolution of the alert order, the same shall also be deemed abandoned.”
Section 1129 (d), meanwhile, states, “Having paid the assessed duties, taxes and other charges, the owner, importer or consignee or interested party after due notice, fails to claim the goods within thirty days from payment. For this purpose, the arrastre or warehouse operator shall report the unclaimed goods to the District Collector for disposition pursuant to the provisions of this Act.”
Guerrero said the one-time extension provided either in Section 407 (Goods declaration and period of filing) or Section 403 (provisional goods declaration) under the CMTA, “shall be granted only if the request is filed before the expiration of the original period and invoking for valid reason/s.”
“No further or other extension shall be allowed,” he added.
Under Section 407, goods declaration must be lodged within 15 days from the date that the last package from the vessel or aircraft was discharged. The period to file the goods declaration may, upon request, be extended on valid grounds for another 15 days, provided the request is made before the original period within which to file the goods declaration expires, and provided, however, that the period of the lodgement of the goods declaration may be adjusted by the Commissioner.
Section 403, meanwhile, states that provisional goods declaration may be extended for another 45 days for valid reasons.
Last December, Guerrero also issued Customs Memorandum Order (CMO) No. 27-2018 as another measure to avoid delays and address port congestion.
CMO 27-2018 orders that all pending alerted or specially stopped goods or shipments go through x-ray and spot-checking instead of complete physical inspection. But a complete physical inspection is still warranted after an x-ray exam if there is reason found to do so.
CMO 27-2018 said the new policy “mitigate(s) the increasing delay in the examination of goods and/or shipments in all districts/ports, covered by pending alert orders and special stops, causing port congestion, unnecessary costs on the part of the government, and economic losses both on the part of the government and private sectors.” – Roumina Pablo
