The Philippine Bureau of Customs (BOC) has activated electronic payment (e-payment) for permits and clearances issued by two government agencies linked to the Philippine National Single Window (PNSW).
“We launched the e-payment system with SRA (Sugar Regulatory Administration),” last week, Customs commissioner Rozzano Rufino Biazon said. It is the second agency to use the system after NTC (National Telecommunications Commission).
“The system allows traders to pay their fees and other charges online instead of going to the bank, significantly reducing transaction time” by at least a day, Biazon said. “We are now looking at duplicating this with the remaining agencies expected to hook up with the PNSW in the next few weeks.”
Once NTC and SRA order payment of fees and other charges to the BOC, the bank will automatically debit the fee from the nominated account of the importer to the BOC account.
An account with any Bancnet member-bank must be maintained to participate in the e-payment system. BOC currently uses Philippine Veterans Bank for this purpose although it may be replaced by Land Bank of the Philippines, after the latter’s membership with Bancnet was recently approved. Land Bank is the Bureau of Treasury’s preferred bank for this transaction.
Image courtesy of ponsuwan/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net
