IF the Bureau of Customs (BOC) denies its request for parallel filing of electronic consolidated cargo manifests (e-CCM) with shipping line manifests, the Philippine International Seafreight Forwarders Association (PISFA) will call for a return to the old practice.
“We want to bring back the old practice of just giving our rider manifest to the shipping lines and the lines will just submit it together with their own within the required 12-hour prior to vessel arrival period,” PISFA president Nelson Mendoza told PortCalls.
Mendoza, who is also president of Awards Cargo Agency Phils, Inc, said since the old system requires only one party to submit the manifest, it will be simpler and will once and for all eliminate penalties paid by freight forwarders for late submission of e-CCMs, some instances of which are beyond their control.
“If (parallel filing is dispproved), then the BOC should come up with a new storage system that will house our manifests electronically (for) automatic retrieval and submission once manifests from shipping lines are submitted,” Mendoza added
For now, BOC requires shipping lines to submit their manifests 12 hours prior to vessel arrival and consolidators and forwarders, six hours before.
Late e-CCM filing comes with a penalty of P10,000 for the first offense, P20,000 for the second offense and P30,000 for the third offense.
But forwarders claim the penalty seems fixed at P30,000 even if they are armed with justification for tardiness signed and approved by authorized BOC personnel.
