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SINGAPORE-BASED Crimson Logic
Philippines
Inc. said it continues to seek accreditation from the
Bureau of Customs (BOC) to become the agency’s fourth
value-added service provider.
Crimson
Logic said the move comes after a “major upgrade” of its
systems before the year-ends.
BOC
deputy commissioner Alexander M. Arevalo told reporters
they are only waiting for the formal accreditation of
Crimson Logic so that the government agency can start
working on the advance inward foreign-manifest measure.
“The BOC
expects that by December, with Crimson Logic onboard,
the technical level for the implementation of the IFM
[inward foreign manifest] will be completed and in time
for the full implementation towards the first quarter of
next year,” Arevalo said last week.
Crimson
Logic in June seemed to be a forerunner among agencies
vying for the BOC accreditation as a company tasked to
manage and operate 10 major transactions currently in
the agency’s area of responsibility.
Crimson
Logic that time was ahead three other companies in
promoting and selling its services.
The
firm, however, lagged behind after the BOC’s VASP
accreditation committee, which Arevalo also heads,
bristled on such aggressive tack. The committee called
the attention of Crimson Logic for promoting and
marketing services ahead of official approval.
Arevalo
later said that Crimson Logic had to step back as its
main office in Singapore decided to do a major upgrade
of its system, which meant its Philippine unit has to
follow.
“We are
facilitating the accreditation of Crimson Logic, which
we think will come out anytime from today to have our
four VASPs running well before the end of the year,”
Arevalo said.
The BOC
has already accredited three VASPs—Intercommerce Network
Service, E-Konek Pilipinas and Cargo Data Exchange
Center—all of which currently handles consumption and
warehousing entries in three major ports. These ports
include the Port of Manila, the Manila International
Container Port and the
Ninoy Aquino International
Airport.
They
also expanded their operations to Cebu, Mactan, Davao
and Clark Field starting December 1 after the BOC
ordered the total phased-out the entry encoding centers
at most of the country’s major ports of entry.
Based on
the schedule, BOC is set to rollout the electronic
submission of formal entry, warehousing entry,
selectivity/hold and alert, electronic payment system
and online release starting by January next year and
full migration to electronic process by the second half
of 2008.
The BOC,
national government’s second-largest revenue generator,
was supposed to implement by June this year the new rule
on the inward forward manifest (IFM). The rule says the
agency should receive the IFM 12 hours in advance. The
implementation would be facilitated by the Association
of International Shipping Lines (AISL).
The
agency, however, faced glitches when the AISL declined
to provide the structure for the implementation of the
said rule. The company also recommended that the BOC
should instead turn to the service providers for the
application of the rule. |
