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COMPANY authorized to assist the Bureau of Customs (BOC)
in import facilitation already seeks to extend its
service to other ports to accommodate more customers.
In a
phone interview, the president of the BOC’s first
accredited value-added service provider claimed that
many of its current customers want to use their system
at the
Ninoy Aquino
International Airport since it is more convenient.
“We are
ready to operate at the airport to accept more clients,
but the problem is that the BOC system has not yet
allowed us to accept transactions there,” Francis Lopez,
Intercommerce Network Service (INS) president said.
Currently, the bureau has allowed the company’s front
line system to be used only at the Manila International
Container Port and at the Port of Manila.
Lopez
said that the company is negotiating with a chain of
Internet café owners, whom he refused to identify, to
provide special computers for the use of shippers. This
way, he said that their customers “won’t have to use so
many computers when transacting with us.”
Although
the company is just in its second week of operation, it
already hopes to run on full capacity by undertaking
anywhere from 100 to 200 transactions a day.
INS was
the first company, which secured provisional
accreditation by the Customs bureau after undergoing
rigorous tests.
The
other three aspirants include the Cargo Data Exchange
Center Inc., Crimson Logic Philippines, and e-Konek
Pilipinas. There is still no word from the bureau
regarding when any of the three will get their
accreditation.
Since
INS was the first company to be accredited by the
government, it became the first to undertake a dry run
of the electronic import entry system, which the bureau
intends to implement in the next few months to reduce
corruption and red tape.
Earlier,
Lopez said that the bureau still needs to polish its
policies for the value-added service providers to effect
seamless transactions among its clients. |
