Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto has urged the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to start amending its rules in the shipment of balikbayan boxes, beginning “with some commonsensical changes” to regulations which had elicited complaints from overseas Filipino workers.

“For example, if BOC is insisting on a declaration, then instead of plastering the list of contents for everyone to read, can it not be placed inside a sealed envelope and taped on the side of the box instead?” Recto said.

“Tapos sulatan yung envelope ng: “To be opened by the Bureau of Customs only,” he said.

That would be better than requiring a sender to display a list of contents on the side of the box, Recto said.

Recto had earlier warned that BOC’s rule to senders to attach a list of contents “is tantamount to providing a keyhole that might tempt unscrupulous handlers to open it and rid it of its contents.”

“Ang pangamba nga ng isang OFW, kapag nilista, baka maraming matukso kasi parang sinulat mo na rin na ‘Open me, I’m yours’” he said.

“Yung mga container vans wala namang nakasulat sa gilid kung ano laman nito, bakit yung laman ng balikbayan box gusto ipadetalye ng BOC?” Recto said.

Recto said OFWs will also find it hard to comply with the BOC requirement that they attach purchase receipts to brand-new goods.

“Pag bumili ka ng pantalon at power tools sa supermarket, kasama ng isang cart ng mga groceries, at ang resibo ng pinamili mo ay isang metro ang haba, pati ba ito kailangan mo isama?” Recto asked.

“Pag sinabi mo sa OFWs na humingi ng separate receipt para sa pantalon, maraming magaalburoto diyan,” he said.

“And what if you have bought a cellphone a year ago, and it has remained unused and unopened, how can you comply with the BOC rules if you have already lost the receipt, he said.

Recto had urged the Joint Congressional Customs and Tariff Oversight Committee, which is mandated to monitor the proper implementation of Republic Act 10863, which pegs at P150,000 the total annual value of tax-free balikbayan box shipments, to review the law’s implementing rules.

“The committee should review the rules and rid it of complicated requirements that will wrap balikbayan boxes in red tape,” Recto said.

Recto said it will be the duty of the oversight committee to make a finding if the BOC, in its 22-page Customs Memorandum Order No. 04-2017 which implements Sec. 800 (g) of RA 10863, or the Customs and Modernization and Tariff Act or CMTA, “committed a bureaucratic overreach.”

Section 800 (g) of CMTA allows OFWs and other Filipinos residing abroad to bring in or send to their families in the Philippines tax-free balikbayan boxes, whose contents are not intended for barter and sale and as long as they are not worth P150,000.

OFWs can avail of this privilege a maximum of three times in a calendar year.

RELATED ARTICLES:

• 24 JUL 2017: Recto sees red tape in new balikbayan box rules; calls Congress oversight panel to review new rules

• 14 NOV 2016: Recto: Even without IRR, P150K balikbayan boxes should be deemed tax-exempt

• 20 AUG 2016: Before pitching new taxes, Palace must first issue rules on new PWD, balikbayan box laws

• 31 JAN 2016: Recto: Higher penalties for gov’t men who extort money, delay, pilfer balikbayan boxes

• 19 JAN 2016: Balikbayan Box Law (BBL) OK to exempt most OFW cargo from taxes – Recto

• 28 AUG 2016: Cut expenses red tape first before imposing new taxes

• 24 AUG 2016: Recto to file new BBL – Balikbayan Box Law; to crowdsource ideas from stakeholders

• 24 JUL 2016: Recto: FOI order should be red tape cutting device

• 12 JUL 2016: Recto: Anti-red tape czar needed to cut obsolete gov’t rules costing Ph P140 B a year

• 30 APR 2016: Recto: Next prexy must put red tape in hit list

• 09 NOV 2015: Publish ‘feesbook’ of permits, licenses to promote ease of doing business, cut red tape

• 21 SEP 2013: recto bill to cut red tape in GSIS

LAWS:

• 30 MAY 2016: Republic Act No. 932: Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA)

SENATE BILLS:

• 01 AUG 2016: Senate Bill No. 932: Improving Government Service Delivery, Amending Section 8 of the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007

KEYNOTE SPEECH:

• 28 JUN 2016: From fighting crime to cutting red tape, how DICT can help