BOC temporarily bans returning empty containers to MICP, POM

MANILA, Philippines — To ease port congestion, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) has temporarily prohibited returning empty containers at Manila’s two ports.

Customs Memorandum Order (CMO) No. 13-2019 issued by Commissioner Rey Leonardo B. Guerrero disallowed brokers, importers, truckers and other port stakeholders to return empty containers within the premises of Manila International Container Port (MICP) and Port of Manila (POM) beginning February, until further notice from the country’s second biggest revenue agency.

“Only empty containers covered by special permit to load (SPTL) issued by the container control division of the BOC will be allowed entry to the designated areas of ATI [Asian Terminals Inc.] for POM or ICTSI [International Container Terminal Services Inc.] for MICP,” CMO 13-2019 read.

Also, the BOC ordered all shipping lines and their agents to “see to it that all their empty containers currently stored at ATI for POM and ICTSI for MICP be re-exported or shipped out within a period of 30 calendar days from the date of effectively of this order at their own expense.”

Empty containers that cannot be not disposed of within the given deadline will later on be transferred to containers yards and depots outside the two ports, the BOC said.

Shipping lines and their agents will shell out the costs to pull out empty containers from the ports, it added.

In a manifesto attached to CMO 13-2019, nine groups of port stakeholders said they agreed with the BOC’s exercise of its power under the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) to rid ports of empty containers, namely: Port Users Confederation of the Philippines Inc., Association of Off-Dock CY-CFS of the Philippines, Aduana Business Club Inc., Professional Customs Broker Association of the Philippines, Philippine Multimodal Transport and Logistics Association Inc., Chamber of Customs Brokers Inc., Hauler and Truckers Association in the Watersouth, Action Agad Samahan ng mga Personero sa Pantalan, and Confederation of Truckers Association of the Philippines.

The BOC had blamed port congestion or high yard utilization at MICP and POM to overstaying imports stored within the premises of these two ports, unreturned empty containers, and the truck ban being implemented in Manila.  /muf