BOC to replace all tax credit certificates with new ones

The Bureau of Customs advised yesterday all its district collectors nationwide that the Department of Finance, has issued an order requiring all holders of outstanding tax cridit certificates (TCCs) to surrender these starting Oct. 1 to the One-Stop Shop Inter-Agency Tax Credit and Duty Drawback Center for revalidation and authentication.

Customs deputy commissioner for administration Emma Rosqueta said that DOF order was issued to protect the interest of the government as well as the integrity of the tax credit system against the use of fake, tampered or recycled TCCs.

By Oct. 1, the use of TCCs to cover the duties and taxes of shipments for release from the customs zones will not be honored unless such TCCs are revalidated and authenticated by the center as provided for in the DOF order.

Rosqueta said the implementation of the special revalidation and authentication is intended to determine the outstanding amount of TCCs that are still floating in the market and to prevent the use of expired, fake, tampered or recycled TCCs.

Covered are TCCs jointly issued by the BOC and the center since 1979, and also those jointly issued by the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the center since 1988.

Special revalidation is the process of cancelling outstanding TCCs and the replacing them with new form. Outstanding TCCs refer to all with creditable or outstanding balances whether they were originally issued to the original grantee or transferred from the original grantee.

The DOF order also requires the center, in coordination with the BOC and the BIR, to cause the production of new TCC forms with the additional security features to prevent the unauthorized production and use of fake TCCs.

The new forms, according to the DOF order shall be ready for issuance not later than Sept. 30.