A total of 13,483 importers and customs brokers have been accredited with the Bureau of Customs (BOC), while 1,512 were weeded out as of August 1, according to the Department of Finance (DOF).
In DOF’s latest Tax Watch advertisement, it said “accreditation reform has made it easier to do good business” and enabled “ghost and fly-by-night importers (to be) minimized.”
Of the total legitimate registrants, 12,073 were importers while 1,410 were customs brokers. DOF noted that as of March 2014, or before the change in accreditation procedures, there were 13,221 accredited importers and 1,774 accredited customs brokers.
DOF said “it takes an average of 1-5 workings days to process an application with complete documentary requirements,” noting that under Customs Memorandum Order No. 12-2014, processing of applications takes 15 working days.
Meanwhile, as of August 1, the Bureau of Internal Revenue has granted 15,855 clearance certificates and denied 2,796 applications.
Of the total to be given clearance, 14,266 were importer’s clearance certificates (ICC) while 1,589 were broker’s clearance certificates (BCC). Of the denied requests, 2,675 were ICC applications while 121 were BCC applications.
DOF last year implemented a two-tiered accreditation process for importers and customs brokers. The measure met with disapproval from stakeholders, especially over the tedious requirements and months-long period that some approvals took. – Roumina Pablo
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