The Bureau of Customs (BOC) will update soon its electronic-to-mobile (e2m) system to finally include other units of measurements besides kilograms (kg) in establishing the volume of different types of commodities and shipments.
Customs commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero, in a Senate hearing on September 25, said BOC “will soon be implementing a new system of determining volume because currently… commodity shipments when it comes to volume, are measured in kilograms across the different types of commodities; even cell phones are measured in kilograms.”
“We have already started to make the necessary adjustments in our computer system and we have also started to train and educate our personnel on how to implement this new system of implementing the measurements,” Guerrero added.
BOC Import Assessment Service director Atty. Yasser Ismael Abbas, in text messages to PortCalls, said BOC will be coming out with a policy soon on the updating of the e2m to “reflect the appropriate unit of measurement (units, liters, kilograms, etc.) based on the HS code of the commodity.”
Abbas said the e2m update will be launched either in October or early November, as the customs bureau will still have to conduct an information caravan and possibly a pilot test prior to the formal launch.
Chamber of Customs Brokers, Inc. president Adones Carmona welcomed the new development and “would love to see how they would implement it.”
Carmona said customs brokers have found it hard to justify to importers why BOC’s valuation is based in kilograms, even when this unit of measurement is inappropriate for the shipment. Customs brokers have raised this issue with BOC in different fora.
Carmona explained that using kilograms usually results in higher valuation, and that “mostly examiners/appraisers insist on the higher valuation even with submission of validated proof of payment [for] fear of repercussion of a show cause for not applying BOC’s reference.”
He did note that some examiners and appraisers only require the submission of proof of payments and accept it without imposing any additional duties and taxes.
Aside from updating the e2m, BOC also plans to come out eventually with a system to track the correct weight of shipments based on the stowage plan.
Abbas said “this will allow the bureau to address undervaluation and misdeclaration by tracking the actual weight of each container.”
But since this is still being conceptualized, Abbas said BOC will be releasing a customs memorandum order to implement a policy requiring the stowage plan of the vessel for every entry to be submitted to the Entry Processing Unit of the Formal Entry Division. He noted that providing the stowage plan for every entry is possible.
Abbas said these plans can be discussed during BOC’s dialogue with stakeholders on September 30. – Roumina Pablo
