Cebu exporters want streamlined processes for taxation, customs

Exporters from Cebu have urged the government to remove redundant requirements imposed on importers, stressing that these new directives being implemented by the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs have been adversely affecting their businesses.

These new directives, which also affect the exporters who import their raw materials, are provided under BIR memorandum order (RMO) 10-2014, which imposed 35 documentary requirements for importers, customs brokers and cooperatives, while the BOC order (CMO) 04-2014 required 15, the Confederation of Philippine Exporters Foundation (Philexport Cebu) Inc. said in a statement issued over the weekend.

“There are a lot of redundancies in both directives of the BIR and BOC, not to mention the extra layers of bureaucracy that will cause delays, additional costs and inconvenience to exporters and importers,” the group noted.

According to Philexport Cebu, they have been mandated to apply for BOC’s Client Profile Registration System (CPRS) accreditation as exporters, submitting practically the same documents prescribed under the new orders issued by the BIR and the BOC.

Such rules, Philexport Cebu stressed, ran counter to key operating principles supporting export development of Republic Act 7844 or the Export Development Act of 1994. A section under this law stipulated that all government agencies whose actions affect exporters, such as the BOC and BIR, “shall simplify procedures to minimize bureaucratic red tape.”