Importers shipping through the Mindanao Container Terminal (MCT) have again asked for the return of x-rays to within the port area to do away with payment of additional fees in case containers need to undergo examination.
In a letter to Customs commissioner Alberto Lina, the PIE-MO Industries Association, Inc. (PIA) said importers pay extra fees to private firm Golden Sun Cargo Examination Services Corp each time containers need to be examined at the customs clearance area (CCA) / designated examination area (DEA). The CCA is operated by Golden Sun and is located outside the premises of MCT but within the PHIVIDEC economic zone.
An organization of enterprises located at the PHIVIDEC Industrial Estate Misamis Oriental Special Economic Zone, PIA said importers pay additional charges for hustling, lift-on/lift-off, stuffing, stripping, and parking at the CCA/DEA. Exporters, on the other hand, pay an extra P100 per TEU in parking fee. There is also a fee of P800 for security warehouse, open space, and forklift rentals.
PIA said the location of x-rays outside the port has also resulted in cargo not being cleared with the BOC’s electronic-to-mobile system. This has led to MCT port operator Mindanao International Container Terminal Services, Inc losing control of the cargo once it leaves the MCT gate, PIA noted.
The organization’s letter, signed by president Augustus Adis, was in reply to a request by Lina for additional information on the issue. PIA first made a petition for the transfer of x-rays to former commissioner John Phillip Sevilla in August last year; another letter was submitted in May, by which time Lina had just been reappointed commissioner of the Bureau of Customs.
When x-ray inspections were previously conducted inside the MCT port, shippers did not have to pay additional charges, PIA said. But in 2013, by virtue of Customs Memorandum Orders 18-96A and 17-2008, the x-ray units were transferred outside the port to a private area run by Golden Sun, which then started to function as the CCA/DEA.
“Even with minimal movement, for as long as the cargo is within CCA premises, the charges are the same,” PIA said, adding that “we understand these charges go to the private operator.”
The current practice, PIA noted, is also “prone to corruption. There have been reports of legitimate shipments, even from SGL (super green lane) users, being ordered to bring their shipments to the CCA (DEA) for physical inspection.”
The group reiterated its call to have the x-ray returned within the port premises “to avoid additional charges and ensure that the BOC has control over what goes in and out of the port without the additional charges.” – Roumina Pablo
