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PRIVATE-sector and civil-society groups have asked the
government to share copies of inward foreign manifests
which, at the moment, are being handled by the Bureau of
Customs (BOC), with other government agencies prior to
the arrival of shipments.
In the
first meeting of Ports Transparency Alliance, a body
composed of government, private-sector and civil-society
groups, the groups said such would help in the
transparency measures of the BOC, which has been
cleansing its systems of graft and corruption through
automation initiatives.
The
group also recommended the government use a harmonized
tariff system, regularly publish valuation references on
the Internet and fast-track a fuel-marking initiative to
prevent the smuggling of oil products.
Finance
Secretary Margarito Teves said the department presented
to the group the anti-smuggling initiatives of the BOC
at the group’s first meeting Friday. Some of the
controversial measures that the agency implemented in
previous months were among those presented.
Teves
said one of the measures included ensuring the
consistency of the implementation of inward foreign
manifest with import entry is by requiring electronic
submission of inward foreign manifests at least 12 hours
before arrival.
The
system will mainly use the value-added service providers
of the BOC. At the moment, however, the agency and the
private sector are still in the testing stage of the
measure that includes cooperation with international
shipping lines.
Teves
said there are also moves to enhance the partnership
between the Presidential Antismuggling Group (PASG) and
the BOC, which hopes to coordinate its activities in
filing cases in court against various companies.
He said
the PASG will have access to BOC documents and reports
and coordinate their moves, amid complaints of
overlapping since the PASG was established last year.
The BOC
will also intensify the monitoring of imports in free
ports and economic zones by seeing to it that import
permits do not exceed predetermined requirements;
require the liquidation of entry declarations of ecozone
and locators of Subic Bay and Clark Field; and
collection of duties and taxes in case the goods brought
in exceed the requirements of locators.
The BOC,
Teves said, may tap auditors of the Bureau of Internal
Revenue, the government’s largest revenue-generating
agency, to help Customs’ postentry audit group in
analyzing whether correct taxes were paid by various
importers in the last three years.
He said
there is also a move—through the issuance of an
executive order—to pave the way for the possible
surveillance of private ports by the Navy, ports and
coastal officials.
Other
initiatives include updating of valuation database,
securing information on selected exports such as oil and
other bulk commodities to the country by obtaining data
from commercial attachés and requiring vessel operators
to submit port load survey from the port of origin,
establish an online viewing of X-ray images from all 30
customs scanners nationwide, and enhancing cooperation
with the Land Transportation Office to ensure that no
registration is renewed without clearance from the BOC. |
