Legal basis and related issuances
- The Order is adopted to effectively implement Customs Administrative Order (CAO) No. 1-2007, as further amended by CAO No. 6-2007 and CAO No. 2-2013.
- It uses CAO 39-2008 for the requirement that shipping lines, forwarders, and consolidators register through accredited agencies.
- It follows rules on ETA/ATA and last package discharge information as referenced through CMO 23-2014.
- It fixes supplemental manifest timing by reference to CAO 6-2007 as mentioned in Section 4.5.
- It imposes fines by reference to Section 2521 of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines (TCCP) as amended.
- It anchors the rule on material manifest changes to Section 1005 of the TCCP and entry-filing period to Section 1801 of the TCCP.
Policy objectives and compliance goals
- The Order requires procedures that implement CAO-based e-manifest requirements and establish uniform handling of Inward Foreign Manifest (IFM) and Consolidation Cargo Manifest (CCM) data.
- The procedures are designed to make IFM and CCM available to different BOC offices at the earliest possible time.
- The Order is intended to define procedures for submission, distribution, and processing of IFM and CCM data.
- The procedures are intended to facilitate trade and ensure that IFM and CCM are submitted in the prescribed form, with required information, at the prescribed time, and to designated customs officials and offices.
- The procedures are intended to expedite the release of legitimate cargo upon arrival in the Philippines.
Coverage, parties, and manifest concepts
- The Order covers all sea manifests, including those from forwarders and consolidators in all ports, for submission through Value Added Service Providers (VASPs).
- The BOC Piers Inspection Division (PID) or its equivalent office records ETA, updates of ATA, and the date of the last package discharge in the BOC E2M System, following the basis in CMO 23-2014.
- The e-manifest is the general term for e-IFM and e-CCM.
- e-IFM consists of all master bills of lading of shipments consigned to ultimate and nominal consignees.
- e-CCM consists of all house bills of lading of shipments consigned to ultimate consignees and degrouped/split from master bills of lading whose consignees are just nominal such as banks, forwarders, and consolidators.
- Shipping lines/forwarders/consolidators must be registered with the Client Profile Registration System (CPRS) through their respective accrediting agencies under CMO 39-2008.
- The e-IFM (for shipping lines) and the e-CCM (for NVOCC/Cargo Consolidator/co-Loader/Breakbulk Agent) are submitted by the concerned forwarders/consolidators through VASPs.
Mandatory e-manifest submission rules
- Shipping lines must submit the e-IFM at least twelve (12) hours before arrival of the carrying vessel.
- Consolidators/forwarders must submit the e-CCM at least six (6) hours before arrival of the carrying vessel.
- If the e-CCM cut-off time falls outside government regular working hours, the e-CCM must be submitted after arrival but within the first 2 hours (before 1000 hours) of the immediately following day.
- e-manifest submission must be done through accredited VASPs; VASPs must validate the e-IFM/e-CCM in accordance with BOC validation rules.
- e-manifests that pass VASP validation must be transmitted to the BOC-VASP Gateway.
- The e-manifest that passes validation is registered in the e2m Customs System; bills of lading numbers of the validated manifest become available for matching when the e2m import declaration is lodged.
- The bill of lading number is written-off upon final assessment of the corresponding e2m import declaration.
- The e-IFM must be submitted ahead of the e-CCM; if the e-CCM is submitted ahead of the e-IFM, the e-CCM is not registered and must be re-submitted once the e-IFM is registered.
- The BOC uses e-IFM as the primary e-document for verification of the e-CCM.
- The VASP must provide the arrastre/terminal operator an electronic copy of the manifest lodged through the VASP’s Manifest submission application.
- The cut-off time for electronic manifest submission is calculated from the submitted Estimated Date and Time of Arrival (ETA) using the BOC Gateway Server clock.
- The Electronic Manifest System (EMS) processes e-manifest submissions based on submission time and classifies them into:
- On-time submission: Twelve (12) hours before arrival for IFM; Six (6) hours before arrival for CCM, subject to the working-hours rule and the next-day first 2 hours (before 1000 hours) rule.
- Late submission: after the cut-off time provided under the preceding rules.
- Supplemental e-manifest submissions are treated as non-compliant submissions; supplemental e-manifest must be submitted in hard copies and electronic form within the period prescribed in CAO 6-2007 as referenced in Section 4.5, otherwise shipments covered by the supplemental manifest are considered un-manifested and subject to forfeiture proceedings.
- Failure to submit required information within the period prescribed under Section 3.3 triggers the following fines schedule under Section 2521 of the TCCP, as amended:
- PhP10,000 per late submission of e-IFM
- PhP1,000 per late submission of e-CCM
- Late submission is treated as having justifiable cause and is not subject to penalty when caused by:
- e2m system break-down or technical problems of the system and power failure
- VASP technical problems
- Fortuitous events
- Late submission of IFM, in case of CCM
- Early arrival of the vessel from that of the original schedule
- Under the listed justifiable-cause circumstances, the IFM and/or CCM submission is allowed within twenty four (24) hours from cessation of the event, except for early arrival, where submission is allowed within 24 hours from arrival.
- Payment of fines is without prejudice to additional recourse the BOC may pursue against the delinquent shipping line or NVOCC/consolidator/co-loader/breakbulk agent.
- An attempt to submit the e-CCM before cut-off time, as logged in the BOC Gateway Server, is taken into account for waiving the fine against the forwarder/consolidator.
- e-manifest may be directly registered with BOC when submitted to the BOC Gateway Server before the cut-off time; when the cut-off time is reached, the e-manifest is automatically registered with BOC.
- Shipping lines are enjoined to exercise direct registration of e-IFMs to give forwarders/consolidators enough time to submit their e-CCMs before cut-off.
- The e2m import declaration (SAD) is accepted by the system only when all of the following conditions are met:
- The electronic manifest has been officially accepted (registered) by the EMS
- The bill of lading is a house B/L
- The house B/L is also registered
- Once the bill of lading number is used in an e2m import declaration, the corresponding bill of lading in the e-manifest can no longer be subject of any amendment to the e-manifest.
- The VASP is responsible for training its own shipping line/consolidator-forwarder clients on the submission of electronic manifest and related matters.
Processing, feedback, notices, and enforcement mechanics
- Shipping line representatives of vessels arriving at the Port must notify the PID (or equivalent office) the following vessel arrival details, among others:
- Name of Vessel
- Registry Number in the format xxxNNNN-yy, where xxx is the three-letter code assigned to the shipping line, NNNN is a sequence number, yy is the shortened year code
- Estimated Date and Time of Arrival
- Shipping lines must submit e-IFM; consolidators and forwarders must submit e-CCM through VASPs.
- EMS must send feedback messages to the VASPs on the result of validation, and VASPs must transmit those messages to originating shipping lines/forwarders/consolidators.
- When validation errors occur, the feedback message must contain the error outputs captured from the system.
- EMS must timestamp the e-manifest when received by the BOC Gateway Server.
- Upon vessel arrival, PID (or equivalent) must encode the actual date and time of arrival.
- Upon completion of discharging operations, PID (or equivalent) must encode the date of discharge of the last package from the vessel; this date serves as the reckoning date for the 30 days period within which an import entry must be filed, otherwise the imported article is deemed abandoned.
- EMS must include the registry number in lists of late and non-compliant manifests automatically generated and sent by email to PID (or equivalent) for enforcement of fines.
- PID must collect the proper fines pursuant to the fine schedule under the late submission rule.
- EMS must transmit notifications to the Alert System of the e2m Customs for non-compliant submissions; the Alert System must inform concerned offices via e2m Customs internal e-mail.
- Late or non-compliant e-manifest submissions accepted by EMS remain in stand-by status pending decision of the Office of the Deputy Collector for Operations for manual registration in EMS.
- The Office of the Deputy Collector for Operations may register late/non-compliant e-manifests only if the shipping line/forwarder/consolidator formally justifies the submission and pays the proper fine under the late submission penalty rule.
Amendment, hard copies, and supplemental e-manifests
- Manifest amendments by shipping lines/forwarders/consolidators may be made:
- Before the cut-off time: as a matter of right by sending a new e-manifest to update the previous one.
- If already registered: by formal request with the Office of the Deputy Collector for Operations.
- Amendments considered not material—such as lack of punctuation marks, spacing, wrong spelling, and other clerical errors—are done administratively through on-line amendment.
- Amendments considered material and requiring a request under oath—such as change in consignee’s name, addresses, description of goods, weight, volume, and similar amendments not clerical—are allowed only in these instances tied to TCCP rules:
- When provided under Section 1005 of the TCCP, including the rule that cargo manifest