The Bureau of Customs (BOC) is creating an automated system to make it easier for importers and customs brokers to comply with the requirement to submit a list of importable items, according to Customs commissioner Isidro Lapeña.
The Customs chief, in a press conference on May 11, said he gave the Management Information System and Technology Group (MISTG) one month to come up with a system that will make updating of the list of importables and the verification of additional importable items easier.
In a March 12 memo, BOC required importers to submit, as part of their registration, a list of importable items with clear description in technical and tariff terms, and estimated volumes and values for the next 12 months.
The policy is intended to weed out consignees-for-hire and “to ensure that only commodities or items in the approved list [are] imported by consignee.”
It must be noted though that such a requirement is nothing new, having been mandatory since 2014 when BOC changed its accreditation process.
New in the March 12 order was the requirement for district and sub-port collectors, deputy collectors for assessment, chiefs and personnel of the Formal Entry Division, importers/consignees, brokers, and all other concerned parties to counter check the approved list of importables before processing an import entry.
Additional items on the list of importables also required approval from BOC’s Account Management Office prior to importation.
Those two new provisions were, however, suspended for a month beginning April 15 “due to the sheer volume of importers requesting for relevant documents and complying with the directives of the said order,” Lapeña said.
The requirement to submit a list of importables has not been suspended. – Roumina Pablo
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