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Wednesday, April 05, 2006
New law to lower revenues of cargo forwarders - Pisfa
There need not be a conflict between customs brokers and sea freight forwarders in facilitating export documents.
The two sectors can even “complement” each another, said Malou Buñing, president of BlueTrans Cargo Systems Inc. and head of the Philippine International Seafreight Forwarders (Pisfa) Cebu.
She said the present conflict may be caused by lack of understanding of the functions of freight forwarders.
“Brokers just don’t understand forwarders’ job, which is total logistics that includes sea freight, warehousing and processing of documents, among others,” she said in an interview with Sun.Star Cebu yesterday.
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She said forwarders offer “package deals” to their clients who want convenience and fast processing of their export documentation.
But customs brokers think differently.
“Forwarders have been robbing our profession for a quite a long time now.
We are seeking our niche in the industry. This has always been our job from the very beginning, but forwarders also do it,” said Ricky Gantuangco, vice president of the Professional Customs Brokers’ Association of the Philippines Inc. in the Visayas and Mindanao.
He called on the exporters to directly avail themselves of the services of licensed customs brokers to save costs.
Spend more
If they go to forwarders, they will end up spending more because under the new customs brokers law the forwarders have to hire licensed customs brokers, he said.
“We employ their (licensed customs brokers) services because there are documents that we can’t sign. There should be no overlapping of job. Our interrelationship is just misunderstood,” Buñing said.
Pisfa Cebu has 61 accredited member companies, she said.
Cebu exporters had expressed concern over Republic Act 9280, also known as the Customs Brokers Act of 2004, which they believe will cause delays in their operations and increase cost of business.
RA 9280 allows only customs brokers and their customs representatives to transact business with the Bureau of Customs.
Decline
When RA 9280 is fully implemented in May after the 60-day moratorium, Buñing said the revenue of forwarders will decline as their clients will soon be served directly by customs brokers.
Guilbert Purcia, president of Purcia Transport System Inc., said RA 9280 will delay the processing of export documents.
“Our government created a law as if we are the only country in the world. It goes against our thrust for globalization,” he said in a separate interview.
The accessibility and availability of the services of brokers are some of the main concerns because “only a few” brokers have offices, the technology and means to do the processing work as fast as exporters require, he said. (ALC)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (April 5, 2006 issue)
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