CCCI airs concerns against some government agencies
The Cebu business community has voiced out its various concerns in doing business with some government agencies.
During the 26th Visayas Area Business Conference (VABC) last Friday, Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) past president consul Samuel Chioson presented the chamber's various resolutions calling out certain government agencies.
These concerns will be presented to the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) during the Philippine Business Conference and Expo on October 18-19 in Manila.
CCCI is urging the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to regularly publish a matrix of all fees of shipping lines to assist importers and exporters in choosing which shipping lines offer fair, reasonable and efficient logistics services.
Chioson also cited a resolution calling on the Department of Finance (DOF) to address the standardization of the length of time and procedure for the processing and release of imported cargoes in ports outside Metro Manila benchmarked with those of the Manila office of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), or if possible to benchmark against best practices in the ASEAN region.
"Authorize the regional offices of the BIR to accept and process applications and release Importers’ Clearance Certificate (ICC), and of the BOC for the Brokers Customs’ Clearance (BCC) to make the system more efficient and less costly for importers. The current system of a centralized release for the acceptance, processing and releasing of ICC and BCC at the Manila Central Office have caused delays in the movement of goods and supplies resulting to increase of storage and detention fees," the former chamber president read the resolution.
The Cebu business community also wants to expedite processing time for the ICC by limiting the requirements of BIR to six certifications and to link the BIR’s computerized system to the system of government so that verification can be easily automated, thus eliminating the delegation of importer/taxpayer to do verification process.
The CCCI has also expressed support to the immediate implementation of the Inter-Agency Business Process Interoperability (IABPI), a project of the DOF that aims to simplify and harmonize the import and export documentation of regulated projects and automate import and export documentation processes of trade regulatory agencies (TRGAs).
"Resolve further to urge the DOF and the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT), to adhere to the timeline of incorporating the IABPI to the TradeNet, which should already be pilottested and connected to the ASEAN Single Window by December 2017," Chioson further said.
The Cebu Chamber is also urging the national government and the Department of Health (DOH) through the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) to rationalize and streamline the requirements for the processing of License to Operate (LTO) and the Certificate of Product Registration (CPR) to enable local importers and distributors to facilitate the release of their imported raw materials from the port of entries.
"[We] urge the FDA and to allow its Regional Offices to process the LTO and the CPR as the centralized system is costly and burdensome, especially for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs)," he said.
The business group is also backing the proposed enactment into law of Senate Bill 1311 and House Bill 2148 or the Expanded AntiRed Tape Act to ease doing business in the country and make it competitive and compliant with global business practices and standards.
Chioson noted: "Resolve further to include the processing and release of payments and services rendered and goods delivered to government agencies and local government units (LGUs)."