Customs to close encoding centers

BY JUDY T. GULANE, BusinessWorld Senior Reporter IMPORT ENTRY ENCODING CENTERS IN THREE MAJOR PORTS will cease to operate by Monday next week upon order of the Bureau of Customs, in line with a plan to shift to paperless transactions. Customs Commissioner Napoleon L. Morales, in an October 26 memorandum to bureau officials and brokers, said the import entry encoding centers at the Port of Manila, Manila International Container Port (MICP) and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) will be shuttered by November 5. Import entries, he said, should be filed through the Internet using the facilities of value-added service providers (VASPs). He told brokers to register with either of the three VASPs, information technology companies with expertise in customs-related transactions, since the import entries of nonregistered brokers will not be processed by the Customs bureau. The import entry encoding centers, run by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) since 1994, are manned by people who manually encode the details of import entries into electronic documents that are submitted to the Customs bureau for assessment. On the basis of these entries, the Customs bureau decides whether an importation can be released right away or be subjected to inspection. In line with a project to shift to paperless transactions, the Customs bureau wants importers and brokers to stop going to the encoding centers and to input the required data themselves by logging on to any of the three VASP’s Web sites. "The only mode of [import entry] lodgment that will be accepted by the Port of Manila, MICP and NAIA is through the Internet," Mr. Morales said. "All brokers are requested to identify the Internet facilities they will use for lodgment, which are: in their offices and/or homes, Internet cafes in their barangays and shopping malls, laptop computers with wireless connection, cellular phones with internet capability, etc." "However, the prerequisite for being able to lodge an import entry is the registration — including enrollment of passwords — with the VASPs." The Customs bureau has accredited three VASPs: eKonek Pilipinas (www.ekonek.com), Cargo Data Exchange Center, (www.cdec.com.ph) and InterCommerce Network Services (www.intercommerce.com.ph). The shift to electronic transactions will not only result in savings for the Customs bureau’s customers — the importers and brokers — but will also make the bureau’s work processes more efficient, officials said. Alexander M. Arevalo, Customs deputy commissioner for management information systems and technology, said the use of VASPs was just the first of more than two dozen transactions that the Customs bureau wants done electronically. Among these are the lodgment of other types of entries, online release of cargo, online verification of licenses and permits, accreditation of importers, and the submission of advanced manifests by the shipping lines. Meanwhile, Jesus L. Arranza, president of the Federation of Philippine Industries, said Customs commissioners including Mr. Morales had allowed the encoding centers to operate without a contract. The PCCI should not have been allowed to operate the encoding centers, he added, since its members are also the importers. "There was conflict of interest," he pointed out. Donald G. Dee, chairman of the PCCI, said the chamber could not close the encoding centers after its contract with the Customs bureau expired because the bureau could not provide an alternative. "It took all this time for the bureau to get ready with its system," he said.