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Saturday, July 01, 2006
Don’t enact laws that will harm export business
Understanding the Government’s incapacity to financially support the country’s export sector, Cebu exporters are asking the government to at least support the industry by drafting laws that will help, not kill, the industry.
“They could not support the export sector (financially), still they draft laws that are killing the industry,” Michael Basubas, president of the Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation Inc. said.
“Instead of becoming an enabler, it is the government that unwittingly imposes a lot of barriers, some of which are in the form of arbitrary policies and multiple requirements through licensing, permit and fees. These policies challenge the competitiveness of the industry,” he told a press conference last Thursday.
Laurie Boquirin, a member of the CFIF board of trustees, said the export sector, specifically the furniture manufacturing and exporting industry, is already having a hard time competing with companies abroad, which are full supported by their respective governments.
Among the legislations that CFIF is challenging are the anti-smuggling bills, the Customs Brokers Act of 2004, the issue on toluene and PDEA (Philippine Drug Enforcemeng Agency) licensing. These issues, he said, have been bugging the industry for more than two years now.
The anti-smuggling bill, which has been passed on third reading in the House of Representatives and is awaiting schedule for second reading in the Senate, is intended to amend the existing Customs and Tariff Code of the Philippines.
However, the bill’s provision disallowing exporters from posting surety bonds in order to withdraw their raw materials from bonded warehouses, is anti-exporters, Basubas said.
“We now have to pay in advance the entire value of the import rather than only two percent of the total value of the incurred imports. This is additional cost,” Basubas said.
The Customs Brokers Act on the other hand, disallows, in its implementing rules, exporters from processing export documents and requires the services of customs brokers.
“CFIF appeals to amend the law to exempt exporters from compulsory hiring of customs brokers to save on cost,” Basubas said.
With regard to the toluene issue and PDEA licensing, he said the government might as well remove this licensing requirement if it will not be able to decentralize the processing of the license. (JBN)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 30, 2006 issue)
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