The Bureau of Customs (BOC) and Philippine Postal Corporation (PHLPost) have signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) that aims to speed up the customs clearance and delivery of parcels received from abroad through the postal service.
Signed on March 21 by PHLPost Postmaster General Joel Otarra and Customs Commissioner Alberto Lina, the MOA is a refinement of the 1973 Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines and amends a September 2014 MOA. The latter deputized PHLPost as collecting agent of BOC for duties and taxes and centralized the examination and assessment of parcels entering the country.
In a statement, Otarra said, “The agreement will cut the processing time of parcel handling, as it will be done at the point of entry of all parcels in the country.”
The entry facilities are the Central Mail Exchange Center (CMEC) for parcels that come by air, Surface Mail Exchange Department (SMED) for parcels that enter by sea, and additional ports of entry at postal facilities that may be established as offices of exchange (OE).
Postal items and dispatches arriving at the Philippine port of entry noted in the carrier’s manifest and destined for transhipment to another foreign country will be covered by a separate set of implementing rules.
As designated customs officers will soon be moved to the CMEC, all 17 customs offices in the post office face closure, according to the agreement.
Another “salient aspect of the MOA is the provision of door-to-door service of PHLPost to its client as done by our competitor,” Otarra said.
Customers now have the option of “payment upon pick-up” in the post office or “cash on delivery” by the postman in their respective area, easing the face-to-face transaction of customs officers with parcel receiver and directing their focus on the computation of duties and taxes.
PHLPost will have to communicate with the recipient of the parcel via mobile phone or e-mail provided by the sender to confirm acceptance of parcel and have the receiver agree to pay the duties and taxes pre-computed by Customs.
The new MOA also calls for the establishment of a One-Stop Shop or Partners’ Lounge at the OE for all authorized government agencies and authorities assigned to verify and confirm suspected, regulated, and prohibited items under the customs acts and postal regulations.
To fulfil provisions of the MOA, a joint BOC and PHLPost permanent committee will be created to execute and monitor its implementation; revise, amend or develop its contents; and recommend strategic actions and new policies.
Meanwhile, BOC has requested the public to avoid misdeclaring parcel contents.
“We are appealing to senders of parcel to declare the real value of their parcel. Misdeclarations may hamper the speedy processing and delivery of your parcel,” BOC’s Lina said. – Roumina Pablo
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