BOC to review E-VRIS as solon flags corruption risk of system

THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) said it is open to a “review and revision” of the Enhanced Value Reference Information System (E-VRIS) after a lawmaker denounced this as a “mere continuation” of a previous system that was earlier flagged by a House panel as prone to abuse and corruption.

Customs Assistant Commissioner Vincent Philip Maronilla said they plan to meet with the House of Representatives to address the concern raised by AAMBIS-OWA Party-list Representative Sharon Garin that BOC implementing the E-VRIS will make the bureau culpable of violating the Transaction Value System under the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA).

“We understand the concern of Representative Sharon Garin. The Bureau of Customs has committed to work with the House of

Representatives Ways and Means Committee in the review and revision of the E-VRIS in order to address the concern of the honorable members of the Committee and at the same time still retain the risk assessment functionality of the system,” Maronilla said in a message to Businessmirror.

Garin was also the one who moved to suspend late last year the implementation of the National Value Verification System after concerns were raised that it may violate the World Trade Organization agreement on import valuation. In July this year, the BOC announced that it is replacing NVVS with E-VRIS, which it said will serve as a risk management tool to ascertain the veracity of any statement, document, or declaration presented for customs valuation purposes.

In a briefing of the BOC Import Assessment Service on E-VRIS before the House Committee on Ways and Means on Monday, Garin pointed out the misuse of Harmonized System Codes and called out the BOC for implementing the E-VRIS given that the existence of the CMTA renders it unnecessary.

Garin, who serves as vice chairman of the committee and is principal author of Republic Act 10863 (the Cm ta ), argued that the bo ci sal ready empowered to ascertain the truth or accuracy of any statement, document, or declaration presented by importers, as mandated under the law.

To determine a commodity’s transaction value, Garin said the BOC should instead adhere to the sequential method specified under the CMTA, adding that the bureau must not have the reference value arbitrarily changed as shown in the E-VRIS committee demonstration.

“Don’t forget that we have the Customs Modernization Act. It’s very basic and it is adjusted to how we do things here in the Philippines,” she said.

Garin also urged BOC to look closely into the activities of the

Import Assessment Service (IAS) to prevent unscrupulous activities that will hamper the country’s economic performance in the end.

Sought for comment, Maronilla told the Businessmirror the E-VRIS is intended to help their frontliners detect possible trade misinvoicing by providing them with a quick reference guide on prevailing identical or similar declared values.

“It is intended to be a repository of historical data of all previously declared values combined with other reference valuation publications the BOC subscribed to,” he said.

Pressed on whether the BOC can do away with E-VRIS, Maronilla said: “This is part of the review and revision, if needed, that we will work on with the members of the House Ways and Means Committee.”