THE Philippine Bureau of Customs (BOC) will be studying how to implement changes to its electronic-to-mobile (e2m) system to prevent consignees from cancelling and re-filing their entries to avoid penalties when they are issued an alert order.
In Customs Memorandum Circular (CMC) No. 37-2014, dated March 21, Customs Commissioner John Phillip Sevilla cited “instances of consignees cancelling their entries in e2m after alert orders have been issued against them, and re-filing with amended information to avoid having to pay penalties or suffer seizure of their imports.”
In the interim, cancellation and amendment of entries in the e2m or through an Import Entry and Internal Revenue Declaration are only allowed for entries not subject of open alert orders, according to the directive.
CMC 37-2014 defines an open alert order as one that has been issued by the district collector, the deputy commissioners for the Intelligence and Enforcement Groups, and the customs commissioner, and for which no formal recommendation for lifting endorsed by the commissioner has been made.
The BOC order states that cancellation and amendment of entries subject of alert orders may only be done after such a recommendation is received by the district collector from the alerting office, endorsed by the commissioner.
Verification of whether an alert order has been issued on a particular shipment can be made through the district collectors, who can in turn verify from Atty. Caesar Corpuz or Jon dela Cruz of the Office of the Commissioner.
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