Customs brokers and customs administration students will be staging a protest action on August 27 at the Senate to oppose the proposed Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) which they said contains a provision that is a threat to their profession.
In an advisory to its members and the academe, the Customs Brokers Council of the Philippines (CBCP) said the mass action is to protest the railroading of the passage of the CMTA, regarded as a priority bill by both houses of Congress.
The group said they were not invited to be part of the technical working group or to participate in further hearings on the proposed bill.
(A hearing of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means is being called on Aug 17, with representatives of the Chamber of Customs Brokers, Inc having been invited.)
Together with other customs brokers’ organizations and students, the group last July staged a mass action in front of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) office in Port of Manila against the declarant provision in the CMTA that allows any authorized company officer, who need not be a customs broker, to be the goods declarant.
The group earlier said approval of this bill with the declarant provision intact will mean “collapse” of customs brokerage in the country, affecting those currently studying for the profession since they will eventually find their services redundant.
However, BOC disputed the allegation, saying customs brokers will continue to play a significant role in customs clearance and the rendering of logistics needs of importers.
“Contrary to the position of Customs Brokers and National Students Organizations of the Phils. (CBaNSOP) that the customs broker profession will die once the CMTA is passed, we believe that it will not,” Deputy Commissioner Atty. Agaton Teodoro Uvero of the Assessment and Operations Coordinating Group said in an earlier statement.
He explained “the customs importation process is a very technical process and an importer will always require the expertise and advisory service of customs brokers to properly transact with the BOC.”
In the BOC’s draft proposal sent to the Congress Technical Working Group on CMTA, the BOC executive said, “We recommended that if allowed, only licensed customs brokers may represent importers with customs and that customs brokers will jointly sign the import entry together with the importer who will be the declarant.”
For sole proprietorships, the importer will sign as the declarant, while partnerships and corporations will have to assign a responsible officer to sign as the declarant.
Both the importer—as declarant—and the licensed customs broker—as a licensed professional—will sign the goods declaration and have the shared responsibility to ensure the information provided is correct, Uvero explained. “If they violate customs laws, then both of them will be liable.”
However, Uvero noted that since Congress has sole authority to legislate the CMTA, BOC will only “implement whatever provisions are approved and passed as law.”
Section 108 of Senate Bill No. 168, or the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act of 2013, states that a declarant is a person who makes the goods declaration and submits it to Customs, or in whose name such a declaration is made. Any person having the right to dispose of the goods will be entitled to act directly as a declarant, it adds.
“However, when he authorizes an agent to make the declaration in his behalf, he can only do so through an accredited customs broker except in case when the declarant is a juridical person in which case it may authorize its employee or officer to make the declaration in behalf of the juridical person,” the bill further notes. – Roumina Pablo
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