BOC issues new rules on bonded warehouses

The Bureau of Customs has issued new rules and regulations to rationalize the use and operation of public Customs bonded warehouses (CBWs) to prevent them from being used as smuggling conduits.

Through Administrative Order 2003, Customs Commissioner Antonio Bernardo ordered that the establishment and operation of CBWs shall only be allowed upon determination that the business of a particular port requires such facilities.

On a per shipment basis, imported articles may be deposited in a CBW upon certification by the arrastre operator that the port has no available space nor equipment specially required to handle such articles.

AO 2003 provides that imported articles may be stored in CBWs for a period not exceeding one year to be counted from the time of their arrival. Articles not withdrawn at the end of the period shall be automatically sold through public auction.

Bernardo has ordered the closure of more than a thousand CBWs that were either non-operational in found to have been used as smuggling conduits.

The Customs chief said the bureau is still running after the operators or owners of closed CBWs who have pending obligations to the bureau amounting to an estimated P7 billion for illegal withdrawals of shipments that were transferred to their CBWs.