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The Bureau of Customs temporarily suspended the acceptance of advance manifests in “stored” status
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The move follows the earlier suspension of penalties for the late submission of electronic consolidated cargo manifests
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BOC said it had observed that the Electronic-to-Mobile system is no longer burdened by heavy data loads due to the early submission of manifests in “stored” status
The Bureau of Customs (BOC) temporarily suspended the acceptance of advance manifests in “stored” status following the earlier suspension of penalties for the late submission of electronic consolidated cargo manifests (e-CCM).
Office of the Commissioner Memo No. 74-2025 dated October 29 noted that the pause in the acceptance of advance manifests in “stored” status was issued “upon the observation that the E2M [Electronic-to-Mobile] system is no longer burdened by heavy data loads due to the early submission of manifests in ‘Stored’ status.”
OCOM Memo 74-2025 effectively suspends the implementation of OCOM Memo No. 21-2025, issued last March, which authorized the acceptance of advance manifests even without the corresponding master bill of lading (B/L) or master airway bill (MAWB) provided the manifests are lodged under “stored” status.
Previously, freight forwarders had to wait for the carrier (airline or shipping line) to submit the master bill of lading/master airway bill to the E2M before they could submit their house airway bill of lading/airway bill. The situation has led to instances of late manifest submission, resulting in penalties of between P100,000 and P300,000 as prescribed under Customs Administrative Order (CAO) No. 15-2020.
Forwarders have long complained they bore the brunt of the penalties despite not having control over when carriers submit their MAWB/BL.
OCOM Memo No. 21-2025 was issued to help freight forwarders avoid penalties. Due to technical difficulties, the order was suspended only a few days into its implementation but was re-implemented in April. By September, the imposition of penalties for late submission of advance manifest was paused once again (via OCOM Memo No. 61-2025) due to “limitations” in the E2M System as reason for the suspension.
Consistent with Section 9 of CAO 15-2020, which provides for transitory application pending full implementation of a comprehensive cargo manifest and control system, OCOM Memo No. 61-2025 said the suspension will remain in force until BOC’s E2M System is able to perform the following:
- allow freight forwarders to electronically submit and store data in advance;
- automatically merge the submitted and stored data of freight forwarders with the aircraft’s or vessel’s data; and
- handle the volume of such submissions or transactions without error or system slowdown
The Philippine Multimodal Transport and Logistics Association, Inc. earlier confirmed that no fines have been imposed since September 30. – Roumina Pablo
