Customs modernization bill hurdles 3rd reading

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading the proposed Customs Modernization and Tariff Act to address smuggling and eliminate the country’s major causes of revenue losses.

House Bill 5525, which Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. identified as one of the priority measures of the 16th Congress, is a legislation to make the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines (TCCP) compliant with the Revised Kyoto Convention.

Authored by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali and co-authored by 42 solons, the measure also aims to modernize customs and tariff administration through full automation of operations and thus, reduce the opportunities for corruption and technical smuggling.

The measure also created the Congressional Oversight Committee to oversee the proper implementation of the bill once signed into law. 

It also seeks to update the country’s existing tariff and customs law to more effectively address modern business and trade practices; and reduce the cost of doing business due to customs modernization and thus, encourage more trade investments. 

It declares it is the State policy to protect and enhance government revenue, institute fair and transparent customs and tariff management that will efficiently facilitate international trade, protect and enhance government revenue, prevent and curtail any form of customs fraud and illegal acts, and modernize customs and tariff administration.

The measure defines smuggling as “the fraudulent act of importing any goods into the country, or the act of assisting in receiving, conceiving, buying, selling, disposing or transporting such goods, with full knowledge that the same has been fraudulently imported, or the fraudulent exportation of goods. Goods referred to under this definition shall be known as smuggled goods.”

Likewise, the bill defines technical smuggling as an act of importing goods into the country by means of fraudulent, falsified or erroneous declaration, to reduce or avoid payment of prescribed taxes , duties and other misclassification of goods as to nature, quality or value; undervaluation of price, quality or weight; and misdeclaration of the kind of imported goods.

As to outright smuggling, the bill defines it as “an act of importing goods into the country without complete customs prescribed importation documents, or without being cleared by customs or other regulating government agencies, for the purpose of evading payment of prescribed taxes, duties and other government charges.”