‘No tax hike on OFW boxes’
OFWs in Hong Kong hold a rally in Central on August 30 against the then planned tax hike on balikbayan boxes. Now the BoC says that no tax hikes will be implemented. (File photo courtesy of Migrante Partylist-HK)
CALL it a peace offering.
Christmas might still be three months away, but the Bureau of Customs (BOC) may have just given the millions of overseas Filipino workers (OFW) an early Christmas gift – no tax increase for balikbayan boxes.
After being pummeled by criticisms from various sectors, Bureau of Customs chief Alberto Lina said that the bureau did not intend to increase taxes on balikbayan boxes.
“To our overseas Filipino workers, the Bureau of Customs is not increasing taxes on the balikbayan boxes nor do we want to impede in existing processes,” Lina said in a statement.
“What the BOC wants is to stop the system that has allowed smugglers to take advantage of our OFWs,” he added.
BOC Deputy Commissioner for Revenue Collection Monitoring Group (RCMG) Arturo Lachica also told member-groups of the OFWs Advocates Coalition during a dialogue on Sept. 14 at the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) main office in Pasay City that there would be no tax increase.
“Any increase that we will impose with the freight forwarder, if there would be any, we would have consultations…There is nothing to fear from taxes. It will go through consultative process,” Lachica said.
Susan “Toots” Ople, an OFW rights advocate and the moderator of the two-hour dialogue, said that they appreciated Lachica’s assurance.
“We appreciate the message that they would not increase the taxes of balikbayan boxes and that our kababayans can be assured that, in the future, if there would be increases (in taxes) the OFWs would be among those consulted,” Ople said.
The BOC was severely criticized earlier in the social media for saying that there would be a random inspection of balikbayan boxes.
It was also reported that, in some countries, they have already implemented a P80,000 to P120,000 increase in the shipment cost of consolidated cargoes, such as those from the United States.
Joel Longares, president of Atlas Shippers International Inc., one of the freight forwarders operating in the US, said they already adjusted their rates but they are willing to revert back to their old rates.
It turned out that that the rise in shipment costs implemented on Aug. 10 “without consulting other stakeholders.”
The BOC and OFW groups would also be pushing for the passage of the Customs Modernization and Tariffs Act (CMTA), which would increase the limit of tax-free and duty-free items in accompanied balikbayan items from P10,000 to “a more reasonable amount.”
Currently, a balikbayan box accompanied by an OFW returning or visiting the Philippines should have items that are worth not more than P10,000.
Unaccompanied balikbayan boxes, or those sent through cargo companies, should only have items whose total worth do not exceed US$500 (around P23,000).
Ople, the president of the Blas F. Ople Policy Center and Training Institute, said that they recognized that some of the laws governing the balikbayan boxes are already outdated.
“At present, by default, no one is following the law because it is no longer reasonable. So we are going to work together so that the law would be reflective of the current times, the current situation of the OFWs,” Ople said.
Lachica assured OFWs that their balikbayan boxes “would be treated differently.”
“I mean they would be treated sensitively and with much care,” he said.
Aside from the mandatory x-ray inspection of balikbayan boxes, instead of the random physical inspection, the BOC has asked the OWWA and the OFWs to have a representative detailed at the BOC office to assist them in opening boxes that are suspected to have smuggled goods.
They would also be asking the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to provide them with “a list of legitimate OFWs.” The BOC has also created accounts in the social networking sites such as Facebook to give the public, including the OFWs, a venue to air their grievances or post their inquiries.
Ople lauded this effort of the BOC because the Filipinos based overseas would be able to ask if the items they are bringing in are taxable or not even before they return home.
“We would monitor these sites because it is easy to make a Facebook account, but it might be difficult for BOC to give answers,” Ople said. – with Maia Lopez