The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has released revised guidelines and procedures for seeking custom duty or tax exemption for international donations bound for calamity areas.
As a general rule, BOC said goods imported into the Philippines are imposed customs duties and taxes unless exempted legally. Importation of goods donated from abroad can be exempt from duties or taxes under certain circumstances.
BOC said the revised guidelines were issued in lieu of the temporary cancellation of National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council’s One-Stop Shop. The One-Stop Shop has establishments located at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Port of Mactan, and the port nearest a calamity area designed to facilitate processing of imported relief goods, rehabilitation equipment, and other articles for delivery and distribution to calamity-declared areas. All government agencies involved in the processing of duties and tax exemptions and the release of goods are represented in the OSS.
Under the revised guidelines and procedures issued on April 1, if the consignee is a national government agency, duties and taxes are automatically charged to its account, and the donor need not pay duties and taxes.
The consignee is duty exempt but not tax exempt if it is a Department of Social Welfare and Development-registered, licensed, or accredited social welfare development agency.
Foreign embassies and international organizations and specialized agencies, meanwhile, are both duty and tax exempt.
Other consignees not falling under the three categories are neither duty exempt nor tax exempt.
BOC noted that other charges such as those on storage, demurrage, arrastre, wharfage, trucking/transportation, warehousing, and stripping/stuffing are not covered by the privileges. The consignee is still required to settle these charges for the goods to be released.
BOC charges will also apply. These include the customs documentary stamp (fixed rate of P265), import processing fee (ranging from P250 to P1,000), container security fee (applicable only to containerized cargoes, US$5 x BOC-determined peso-dollar exchange rate per 20-footer), Import Entry and Internal Revenue Declaration Form (P40 per set), customs duty (up to 65% of dutiable value depending on the tariff code of the goods), and value-added tax.
The donated goods must not be prohibited imports. The Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines (TCCP), Section 101, other laws, and other regulations issued by different government agencies define certain goods whose importation into the Philippines is prohibited. Examples include adulterated or misbranded food and drugs. Moreover, used clothing is also banned, as are medicines that do not have English translations on their labels, are not listed in the Philippine National Formulary or registered in a Food and Drug Administration-counterpart agency in the country of origin, and have an expiry date of less than six months upon arrival.
If the donated imported goods are regulated, the consignee must obtain an import permit or clearance from the relevant Philippine government agency. BOC, in its announcement, provided a list of the regulated products, their regulating agencies, and the agencies’ contact details. BOC recently issued a codified list of all regulated import products and their corresponding permits and regulating agencies. – Roumina Pablo
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