Customs tightens watch over bonded warehouses

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has tightened its watch over bonded warehouses as it issued rules to ensure these facilities complied with warehousing laws and adhered to international best practices.

The first customs administrative order for 2022 which was jointly issued by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III and Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero consolidated all guidelines covering customs bonded warehouses (CBWs) as mandated under the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA).

CBWs are BOC-authorized or licensed warehouses engaged in importing, receiving and storing goods, raw materials and other items sans payment of import duties and other taxes under bond.

The products stored in CBWs included those which will be manufactured into finished goods for export, or those to be stored under the account of an accredited exporter-client.

The customs order covered “all types of CBWs listed in the CMTA and those that may be created by the secretary of finance, upon the recommendation of the [BOC] commissioner.”

In the CMTA, CBWs included manufacturing CBWs, miscellaneous manufacturing bonded warehouses, garments and textile manufacturing bonded warehouses, customs common bonded warehouses, industry-specific CBWs, and nonmanufacturing CBWs like authorized private CBWs. Public bonded warehouses in airports had been reclassified as customs facilities and warehouses under the CMTA.

Designated CBWs at ports must first be approved by the BOC commissioner before district collectors can designate and establish these facilities to be licensed, supervised and controlled by the BOC.

The BOC has authority to inspect and audit CBWs as well as bonded goods.

The government’s second-largest revenue agency can also close down erring CBWs.

Penalties also await noncompliant CBW operators.