MANILA — The Bureau of Customs (BOC) will soon be implementing a queuing system instead of the current 15 sections in the formal entry division (FED).
Commissioner Isidro Lapena said the new system, which is set to be implemented at the Port of Manila and Manila International Container Port, aims to eliminate collusion between and among the stakeholders and customs employees as there would be lesser face-to-face transaction.
“There will be no more “suki” system, the broker will not know the assigned examiner removing the possibility of conspiracy between both parties,” he explained.
The BOC chief added: “We are still studying what operational procedure we can use to replace the FED section, “the memorandum will follow next week once the testing is done.”
Lapena said that the bureau can test the competence and efficiency of the examiners to the new customs law and regulations under RA 10863.
It can be recalled that customs examiners and brokers conspire to “facilitate” the shipment through benchmarking and “tara” system.
With this, the BOC also introduced the Status Verification System (SVS), where
stakeholders transacting with Port of Manila can now monitor the status of entry documents submitted to the FED.
POM District Collector lawyer Ernelito Aquino said the SVS had a tracking system that could identify the current status of the entry documents as well as the timeframe to complete the processing.
“Operational testing is being done for one week at the Port of Manila to check if we can use it once FED sections are removed,” he added.
The stakeholder needs to log in to the system to access the data in the system.
Under the SVS, valuation of imported goods can be monitored once the examiners or appraisers input the data in the system, whether the particular shipment was benchmarked or grossly undervalued.