House panel says BoC valuation method could violate WTO rules

THE House Committee on Ways and Means recommended suspending the implementation of the Bureau of Customs’ (BoC) National Value Verification System (NVVS) to determine whether it violates World Trade Organization (WTO) rules on customs valuation.

At a committee hearing Monday, Director Yasser Ismael Abbas of the BoC Assessment & Operation Coordinating Group said that the bureau uses the value listed in the NVVS instead of the transaction value.

The Committee said this may violate the WTO’s Marrakesh

Agreement which states: “the customs value of imported goods shall be the transaction value, that is the price actually paid or payable for the goods when sold for export to the country of importation.”

According to the BoC website, NVVS is a web-based system which BoC Assessment officers may use to verify whether the value declared by the importer is the “price actually paid or payable for the goods when sold for export to the Philippines.”

It further noted that value verification is based on previous importation “similar and identical goods at the same period of importation, and other methods of valuation available under Republic Act No. 10863, otherwise known as Customs Modernization and Tariff Act.”

NVVS and other computer system projects by the BoC were implemented in June.

The chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, Jose Ma. Clemente S. Salceda, said: “Baka ma-sanction tayo ng WTO kasi nga po pumirma tayo na ang pwede lang gamitin sa buong mundo ay yung transaction value at wala nang iba. Basta yung buyer at seller nagkasundo sa isang presyo, yun na dapat ang basis ng dutiable, customs dutiable, transaction. (We might face WTO sanctions because we agreed to the use of transaction value and nothing else. Once the buyer and seller agree on a price, that should be the basis for dutiable value).”

BoC Assistant Commissioner Vincent Philip C. Maronilla told BusinessWorld by phone that the BoC “respects the recommendation of the Committee” and said that it “will conduct further studies regarding the NVVS to address the Committee’s reservations on its implementation.” —