SHIPPING agents and brokers who transact with the Bureau of Customs (BOC) are now encouraged to register with the new online system of the agency.

"They have to register with our client profile registration system, for without registration, shipping agents and brokers will not be able to transact business," said Francis Lopez, president of Intercommerce Network Services, one of the three IT firms accredited by the BOC to be their value added service provider.

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Out of the 15,000 shipping agents and brokers that the BOC expect to register, only 9,254 have registered so far.

BOC launched the electronic-to-mobile (e2m) plan to minimize face-to-face transactions and encourage stakeholders to transact business, such as filing, paying, tracking and releasing shipments, through mobile phones.

BOC is also planning to use a mobile phone cash remittance system as an alternative payment gateway for its clients who need to pay their customs duties and taxes and other accounts.

However, this early, some brokers and agents have already frowned upon the new electronic online system being introduced, which reportedly will cut the time of processing and releasing of shipment from one to two days to a record of thirty minutes.

A shipping agent and customs broker who spoke on condition of anonymity said that BOC has long been in an online mode said that the bureau has already been electronically linked up but has still failed to deliver.

Under the present system, clearing and releasing of shipments are made after two to three days. The new system promises to release shipments in a minimum of thirty minutes.

Abbreviation for Automated System for Custom Data, Asycuda was a project undertaken in 2006 as part of the e-Customs Modernization Project. The project was expected to reduce the transaction cost of importing and exporting products.

Based on reports, the P500 million Asycuda is also expected to boost collection yield and improve with reliable operation and execution.

One primary concern of the broker is that there are still a number of shipping agents and brokers who are inept in using computers.

"Some do not even know how to use the computer. So what will happen? They can no longer import?" the broker asked. (CPM)