Pre-shipment inspection seen to facilitate release of cargoes
The planned pre-shipment inspection (PSI) of goods will facilitate the release of cargoes at no cost to importers and eradicate graft and corruption at the Bureau of Customs (BOC), according to former Customs Commissioner Titus Villanueva.
Villanueva issued this statement to belying the claims of PhilExport President Sergio R. Ortiz-Luiz Jr. that it will delay the release of shipments of exporters.
Ortiz- Luiz said that pre-shipment Inspection is costly to importers and could further delay release of shipments.
In his advocacy, Villanueva does not refer to Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme (CISS) as was implemented before by BOC but a PSI on a limited coverage. The previous CISS covers all Philippine imports.
This time Villanueva has proposed the PSI to cover only those imports by so-called unaccredited importers with no track record or those who have previous customs violations. This group comprises approximately 20 percent of the country’s total imports.
Imports of accredited legitimate importers on the other hand comprise only 80 percent of the country’s total imports that are not to be subjected to PSI. These imports may include materials to be use in the production of local exporters.
For the 20 percent imports which will undergo PSI, the import entries will be certified correct by the PSI inspector, and the cargoes are also released immediately to the importers without delay.
Villanueva’s advocacy also calls for a green lane pass for accredited legitimate importers. Legitimate importers are accredited based on their track record of honesty, integrity and above board business practices. Their imports pass through the Green Lane Corridor which means their imports are delivered directly to their warehouses without passing Customs.
Included in the advocacy is that Customs reserves the right to conduct random checks on the imports of legitimate importers to avoid complacency on the part of the accredited importers. If during the random checks irregularities were discovered, the accreditation of the erring importer would be revoked and their imports would have to pass the regular Customs procedures.
Villanueva’s advocacy is for the imports of these legitimate importers direct delivery from piers to consignees warehouse without passing through BOC. No examination and documentary processing in so far as imports of big companies are concerned. Their shipments comprise about 80 percent of total imports. Direct delivery would decongest the piers by about 80 percent.
The remaining 20 percent may not be subject to PSI however. In fact, BOC can very well handle the remaining 20 percent of imports or those imports by unaccredited importers. Should Customs hire PSI services the Bureau of Customs should shoulder the cost of PSI services as before. The hiring of the PSI service provider must undergo the regular bidding procedures to ensure impartiality and the best and lowest bid.
Under PSI, releases of shipments would be done by the Pre-Shipment Inspectors in the country of origin. With PSI, graft and corruption would be reduced at the same time at the BOC.
It will be recalled that Customs during the PSI implementation in 19912001 spent only R10 billion for the whole duration of its implementation.
Presently, reports say government loses R200 billion a year in customs revenues due technical smuggling such as misdeclaration, undervaluation and misclassification in the import entries of some so called illegitimate importers who make money out of technical smuggling.
The benefit of a PSI would definitely outweigh its cost which since it will only cover 20 percent of the country’s imports will not cost as much as when the coverage was comprehensive during the 1991-2001 CISS years.