The Philippine Bureau of Customs (BOC) recently released guidelines on tagging electronic permits and clearances (e-permit/clearance) issued by government agencies under the Philippine National Single Window (PNSW) system.
Customs Memorandum Order (CMO) No. 12-2012 is designed to verify authenticity of supporting documents of importers and exporters and prevents the use of fake and recycled import/export cargoes permits and clearances. It is also geared toward expediting clearance of legitimate cargoes and reduces costs associated with the manual filing, issuance and processing of import/export cargo permits/clearances.
Signed by Customs Commissioner Rozzano Rufino Biazon on November 7, CMO No. 12-2012 will take effect on November 26 initially at the Port of Manila (POM) and the Manila International Container Port.
BOC will duplicate the procedure in other ports once the agency completes interconnection and access to the PNSW system.
The order covers verification of supporting documents and tagging of e-permits/clearances of import/export cargo issued by the head offices and National Capital Regional offices of the following agencies: Board of Investment, Bureau of Import Services, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Bureau of Product Standards; Bureau of Quarantine, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, Department of Health, Environment Management Bureau, Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority, Firearms and Explosives Office, Food and Drug Administration, Forest Management Bureau, Maritime Industry Authority, National Food Authority, National Meat Inspection Service, National Telecommunication Commission, Optical Media Board, Philippine Coconut Authority, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Philippine Nuclear Research Institute, Philippine Ozone Desk and the Sugar Regulatory Commission.
The memo provides that importers and exporters will encode the PNSW Transaction Reference Number in the Import Entry and Internal Revenue Declaration (EIIRD)/Export Declaration and Import/Export Single Administrative Document (SAD) and submit the required documents to the BOC, including a hard copy of the e-permit/clearance of import/export cargo or review.
The memo gives customs operations staff access to the PNSW so they can verify the authenticity of the documents and check for discrepancy between e-permits/clearances and the electronic-to-mobile SAD.
If everything is in order, Customs can clear and approve the shipments which will automatically tag the import/export e-permits/clearances as “used” in the PNSW system. In case of a discrepancy, the import/export cargo can be recommended for issuance of an alert order.
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