The House Committee on Ways and Means, and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Monday created a technical working group (TWG) to jointly review the implementation of the National Value Verification System (NVVS).
In an interview with reporters following the BOC, briefing on the implementation of NVVS, Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda said the committee, and the BOC, formed a TWG to thresh out issues and create safeguard measures on the implementation of NVVS.
Salceda said the TWG will further study whether or not the NVVS is based on the objective and quantifiable data as required by the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Based on the WTO agreement, Salceda said the BOC should only impose duties on transaction value for as long as the buyer and seller agreed on common price.
“There is P7.8-billion unrealized [revenue] from July 2019 to January 2020 due to NVVS,” said Salceda.
Earlier, the Bicol lawmaker said the BOC should suspend its Web-based NVVS and focus on the bureau’s structural deficit.
NVVS is an internal tool of BOC Assessment officers to check the declared value of importation against the prevailing reference values.
According to Salceda, 90 percent of the transactions in the BOC does not need to undergo inspection under Super Green Lane. All SGL-accredited firms do not need to undergo documentary and x-ray inspection for each shipment.
Moreover, in a letter to Salceda dated February 12, Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero said the bureau is now, in fact, in the process of undertaking measures to improve the issues on the NVVS.
“These measures are included in the Customs Modernization Project sponsored by the World Bank, which is already subject to approval of the National Economic and Development Authority,” he said.
“However, considering the purpose of the NVVS as the bureau’s primary risk management tool to combat undervaluation and address trade misinvoicing, we would like to seek the honorable committee’s kind indulgence to reconsider its recommendation to suspend the NVVS until such time that these measures take effect, and we are able to migrate the remaining functionalities of the NVVS that the honorable committee finds acceptable,” Guererro added.
Guerrero added that the issues and concerns surrounding the continued implementation of the NVVS shall not be used to violate the law and the country’s international commitments relating to Customs valuation.
“Likewise, we undertake to conduct a regular dialogue with our stakeholders to ease concerns, if any, but more important to immediately address any issues in the implementation of the NVVS,” he added.