No duties on P10,000 worth of imports

Filipinos can now fully enjoy their small purchases from their trips abroad.

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Tuesday announced that no duties or taxes shall be collected for goods worth P10,000 and less.

This after the BOC issued a Customs Administrative Order (CAO) raising the de minimis value of taxable goods from P10 to P10,000.

The BOC said this was the first CAO to implement a salient feature of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA).

The CAO, signed by Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon and approved by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, implements Section 423 of the CMTA, which provides that “[n]o duties and taxes shall be collected on goods with freight on board or free carrier value of P10,000.00 or below.”

De minimis, as defined in the CAO, is the value of goods for which no duty or tax is collected. Goods of de minimis value are considered importations with negligible amount and entitled to immediate release.

It is an upgrade from the decades-old Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines which provided for only P10 as the de minimis threshold.

“This is good news for Filipinos, who can now fully enjoy their small purchases from other countries,” Faeldon said.