CEBU, Philippines - Former Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioner Guillermo Parayno urged exporters and importers in Cebu to patronize BOC’s E2M (electronic to mobile) online transaction system.
E2M, Custom’s P600-million project that was launched in 2005, seeks to streamline BOC’s core processes—imports and exports—and improve trade facilitation between the Bureau and its stakeholders, including other government agencies, through the development and integration of various systems allowing Internet-enabled and SMS (short message system)-enabled transactions.
In a seminar organized by Security Bank held at the Laguna Garden Café last Thursday, Parayno said BOC-Cebu has started implementing the system on April 19.
BOC began rolling out the system in March last year, starting off with Batangas Port then to Limay, Mariveles, where oil importations of Petron takes place, Manila International Port, Subic, Clark, Cagayan and Baguio.
“(Now, it’s Cebu ’s turn.) BOC started to talk to Cebu ’s business community in the middle of March (2010) to ready them for the operation of the E2M. We have started last April 19 but on a dual system, which means that brokers were allowed to choose between (transacting with) the old system and the new system or the E2M. So far, the feedback of the new system has been positive,” Parayno said.
He challenged Cebu ’s business community to make the implementation of the E2M system “the best in the country.”
“The objective of the system is to have a 30-minute time frame for the release of document—10 minutes for Customs to do their work and 20 minutes for the banks to do their work. We have not however attained this objective in the other ports,” Parayno said.
E2M-Customs offers enhancements to the current system such as online submission of declarations, automatic advice on declaration status, engagement of value-added-service providers (VASPs), online submission of manifests by airlines and shipping lines, and automated process of other types of import transactions.
According to Philexport’s website, VAPs have replaced the entry encoding center (EEC), which was were the lodgement was previously made. This introduced the shift to Internet lodgement.
Parayno, who served as BOC Commissioner from 1992-1998, was credited for starting to upgrade the quality of Customs services to world class standards through the creative use of information technology. After his term in 1998, he established E-Konek, a VAPS.
E-Konek’s affiliate company, Webb Fontaine Pilipinas developed and implemented the TWM.Phil, the main engine driving the E2M.
E-Konek was also instrumental in the implementation of Custom’s electronic payment system and the electronic transit and admission permit system for the Clark Special Economic and Freeport Zone, which started operating last year.