Customs men tighten watch on transshipments

MANILA, Philippines–The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has ordered its personnel to electronically monitor transshipments starting Monday.

“Upon arrival of all of cargo which is the subject of a transshipment entry to its port of destination, the deputy collector for operations in the port of destination, her/his equivalent, or a person authorized by her/him, shall tag the entry as arrived in the e2m system,” read Customs Memorandum Order No. 07-2015 issued by Customs Commissioner John Phillip P. Sevilla last March 9.

The agency’s electronic-to-mobile, or e2m, system uses Internet-based and wireless technologies that streamline processing of exports, as well as imports.

According to the BOC’s website, transshipment, or the movement under customs control of imported cargoes from their original port of discharge to their final port of destination, is being allowed under the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines.

Transshipments, however, may be tapped by unscrupulous traders to smuggle in goods.

The tagging of transshipments must be done within the day of arrival, or during the next business day for cargoes that arrive beyond office hours, Sevilla said.

As for port-to-port transshipments, entries should be filed at the port of destination within 30 days of the filing of the transshipment entry at the port of discharge, Sevilla said.

Failure to do so, Sevilla added, “will be grounds for abandonment of the cargo.”

Also, “for transshipments which consist of more than one container, the deputy collectors for operation at the port of discharge and port of destination shall manually monitor the departure from the port of discharge and arrival at the port of destination until such time that all containers of the transshipment have arrived at the port of destination, and the entire entry is tagged ‘arrived’ in e2m,” the Customs chief said.

Sevilla also ordered deputy collectors for operations at ports of discharge to prepare daily a record of every transshipment entry, warning that noncompliance would be regarded as “neglect of duty,” punishable by dismissal upon second offense.