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SyCip Gorres Velayo & Co. won the contract to provide project preparation and transaction advisory services for the government’s cross-border electronic invoicing system project
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The Public-Private Partnership Center of the Philippines in a notice dated October 12 awarded the P57.387-million contract for the consultancy project to SGV
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SGV will determine the most appropriate or optimal public-private partnership scheme for the CEI system project
SyCip Gorres Velayo & Co. (SGV) has won the contract to provide project preparation and transaction advisory services for the government’s cross-border electronic invoicing (CEI) system project.
The Public-Private Partnership Center of the Philippines (PPP Center) in a notice dated October 12 awarded the P57.387-million contract for the consultancy project to SGV.
As the winning consultant, SGV will determine the preliminary economic and financial viability of the CEI system; determine its viability as a PPP; and prepare bid/tender documents, provide advisory and transaction support to the Department of Finance (DOF), and ensure effective bid process and contract execution until the financial close of the project if it is to be pursued through PPP.
The consultant will determine the most appropriate or optimal PPP arrangement considering the concerns of all stakeholders, as well as pertinent rules and regulations.
The CEI system project aims to establish a single electronic invoicing platform to be controlled by the Philippine government to effectively monitor international trade transactions of all imported goods.
The system aims to prevent smuggling, misdeclaration, and undervaluation by ensuring that all imported goods are invoiced transparently and that payment of taxes and duties are consistent with import declarations.
According to the project’s terms of reference, the DOF in 2017 noted a discrepancy of P1.8 trillion on volume of goods reported by exporters versus actual volume of goods imported by the Philippines.
The discrepancy rose from 25.1% in 2017 to 26.8% in 2018. The discrepancy is attributed to gross misdeclaration or undervaluation of goods through the use of fake documents.
According to DOF, in 2017 alone the trade data discrepancy translates to foregone revenues estimated at around P231 billion, which represents 2% of the country’s gross domestic product.
Implementation of the CEI, as well as pre-border technical verification (PTV), was approved by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. in 2024 through Administrative Order (AO) No. 23.
AO No. 23 mandates the procurement of a CEI system wherein verified and registered foreign exporters can create electronic invoices on a single electronic platform controlled by the Philippine government.
The electronic invoice will be shared transparently and in real time with the Bureau of Customs, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Department of Agriculture, Department of Trade and Industry, and other relevant government agencies.
As provided under AO No. 23, the DOF should engage a CEI system provider which possesses legal, financial and technical capabilities to provide a secure web-based system for the registration of exporters and the creation of e-invoices.
A user-pays mechanism is proposed for the project where the importer pays an annual fee to register as a user of the system and a fee for every electronic invoice generated.
