Nograles asks Customs to fix ISP glitches: Talo ang consumers!

Party-list Cong. Jericho Nograles has urged the Bureau of Customs (BoC) to immediately fix its online system glitches with alternative processes to protect importers from unnecessary storage and demurrage fees.

Nograles made the remarks following a BoC announcement to its stakeholders that its online services have bogged down. thereby preventing containers and shipments from being released on time.

Nograles, representative of PBA Party-list and a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means, said importers and the business sector at large should not be punished with additional storage and demurrage fees because of Customs’ online system failure.

“While the online system has sped up the processes in Customs, we have received numerous complaints that when the system bogs down, the unscrupulous fixers begin their trade,” said Nograles.

“Those who complained that when the online system fails, some officials dangle the additional storage and demurrage fees as a reason to force importers to pay grease money to prioritize release of shipments,” he added.

Nograles stressed that this incident should serve as a lesson for the BoC and encourages the bureau to create new alternative systems within the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act.

“Glitches and downtime are expected in an online system. And such conditions should have a corruption-free protocol that would not cost importers additional storage fees and demurrage. Whose fault is the downtime, anyway? The Bureau? The internet service provider? Definitely not the importers. Time-sensitive transactions allow another possible scenario of corruption in Customs,” said Nograles.

Nograles noted that since BoC is dependent on a single internet service provider (ISP), it should consider alternative providers.

He warned that importers would have to pass on the extra charges to their customers, who will pass it on to the consumers.

“In the end, it is the Filipino people who would suffer most just because of bad internet services. I ask the BoC for a little more malasakit in solving a problem as simple as an offline ISP,” he said. (JCC)

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