Port fees put Customs, PPA on collision course

The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) has opposed several provisions of a proposed Customs Administrative Order (CAO) that seeks to establish temporary storage facilities for overstaying and abandoned cargoes at the Port of Manila and the Manila International Container Port.

PPA Assistant General Manager Hector Miole, in a recent position paper, said the draft CAO diminished the jurisdiction of the port authority,  particularly in relation to the provision that would allow the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to impose rates for storage services in identified Customs Facilities and Warehouses (CFW).

Miole said Section 2.5 of the draft order ‘‘may imply that the BOC will issue guidelines for storage rates as well.”

He said the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) provided that the customs bureau may impose an annual supervision fee to operators of CFWs and Customs bonded warehouses (CBW) but not for warehousing and storage services.

“The guidelines for the applicable storage period, the rates, as well as violations thereof are functions that are still lodged with the concerned port authorities,” he added.

The proposed CAO, which will implement Section 307 of CMTA, has been widely criticized by various stakeholders who warned that the order will only encourage corruption and lead to higher prices of goods in the long run.

Miole said the draft order  must be amended to make it clear that it was the PPA and not the BOC that had the corporate duty to provide warehousing and storage services, and fix the rates.

‘‘Allowing the BOC to issue guidelines on storage and the rates would result in having two guidelines on the same subject matter issued by different government agencies,” he said.

Miole, citing the need to ‘‘avoid duplicity of functions,” also rejected the BOC’s plan to declare the customs warehouses as ‘‘part of Customs premises” since these facilities were under the PPA.

‘‘PPA is of the view that the BOC may exercise its authority over CFWs for purposes of enforcement of Customs and tariff laws. The issuance of guidelines as to storage period, rates, and penalties are operational concerns of a port, and the same do not necessarily involve customs enforcement,” he said.

During a recent forum organized by the bureau to discuss the draft order, several stakeholders expressed concerns that the bureau wanted to earn revenues from the temporary storages while passing on the cost to CFWs and depriving the PPA of its lawful revenue share.