THE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) has finally completed its interface with the National Single Window (NSW) system of the Bureau of Customs (BOC), days after encountering a technical glitch on its first linkup attempt.
Last Thursday, PEZA — through its value-added service provider InterCommerce Network Services — posted automatically approved electronic import permits (eIP) to the NSW.
“InterCommerce’s PEZA NSW interface is now in production,” INS president Francis Lopez told PortCalls, noting that INS is the first VASP to make the linkup possible.
Under the NSW, all approved import permit applications of importers and brokers will automatically be uploaded by PEZA to the NSW.
Once the application is filed electronically, PEZA will automatically process the import application and check whether the items are valid or approved before electronically sending the approved import permit application to the locator and the NSW. The approved permit can be printed and shown to PEZA or customs authorities before cargo release.
Information uploaded to the NSW will be the basis for BOC to validate import permits issued. Import permits not in the NSW database will not be honored.
There are no fees for the upload but applicants will have to pay the regular electronic import permit application with PEZA.
The NSW will link up to 40 government agencies and enable the submission of data and information that is synchronously processed and resulting in a single point of decision for the release of cargoes by Customs.
The NSW is expected to increase transparency in cargo processing, provide a more accurate, timely and cost efficient exchange of information, reduce customs operational cost and improve revenue.
