The Bureau of Customs (BOC) Sunday formalized its enforcement of the Import Assessment System (IAS) in Metro Manila with its two major ports - Manila International Container Port (MICP) and Port of Manila (PoM) - getting started with their implementations this week.

Customs Deputy Commissioner Alexander Arevalo said the synchronized roll out of IAS was set last Monday, adding he hopes that the stakeholders will comply with the necessary documentary and electronic requirements under the system.

“IAS will not only be applied in MICP and PoM but BoC vows to enforce the new system in the different ports nationwide to benchmark the country to world standards,” Arevalo said.

Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales made good on his promise to implement IAS, one of the components of the electronic to mobile (E2M) system of filing of entries as scheduled this month. He ordered his technical team to enforce IAS at the two ports.

IAS is the new procedure on handling of the country’s imports, which should now use the BoC’s Internet-based system. It requires importers/ brokers to have valid and active Client Customs Number (CCN), Bank Account/s information for payment of customs duties and taxes, and other supporting documents for their importation.

Morales said the project is designed to harmonize, rationalize, and streamline imports and exports processing and improve trade facilitation between the BoC and its stakeholders, including other government agencies through paperless transactions.

Earlier, BoC had further delayed the implementation of the electronic to mobile (E2M) system in MICP due to “procedural errors” brought about by the software of Unisys but Arevalo assured they will resume its enforcement again and again despite computer problems.

The system covers lodgment through the Electronic Manifest System; clearance of Formal Entry System (Consumption and Warehousing); use of Payment Abstract Secure System v. 5.0 (PASS-5); application of non-cash payments, among others.

However, Customs employees are wary over the IAS implementation amid fears that it will dislocate many of them once transactions become non face-to-face and computerized.