Bureau of Customs Treading Muddy Waters After Stirring Controversy in opening Balikbayan Boxes
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The BOC rule was being instituted on grounds of balikbayan boxes possibly carrying undeclared goods for proper taxation. This has sparked people all over the nation with fury and rage. Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has joined the public outrage over the plan of the Bureau of Customs and chimend in with his own words in regards to conducting random inspections of balikbayan boxes, saying it is a form of harassment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
He said “For every OFW, a balikbayan box is the equivalent of his or her love letter to a spouse and the rest of the family. Every item inside that box was bought with a specific person and purpose in mind, bought with the hard-earned money of our modern-day heroes. So if a single item there gets lost, can you imagine how that feels to an OFW who invested so much emotion and money just to get those goods home?”
Marcos noted that the balikbayan box system used by OFWs to send personal goods to their loved ones in the Philippines started during the administration of his father, the late President Ferdinand Marcos, when Section 105 of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines was amended to provide duty and tax-free privileges to OFWs. The latest sample of this was posted by a Facebook page called Ignore Rants, in referral to the issue of the Bureau of Customs in opening balikbayan boxes and implementing taxes which are clearly bloated. A box was delivered from the post-office from London and then the staff decided to open the box. They spotted a Gucci bag, which the staff says a tax is required to be paid. They then searched for the bag online to check its original price, then seemingly found a similar bag with a price of about $1,200. Then they calculated the equivalent tax and resulted in a whopping PHP15,959.00. The package was sent by a family member from London and was ready to be picked up by a relative. Little did they know that their pockets would soon run shallow even before getting a chance to get ahold of their delivered package from their loved ones. The post says even a book is taxed, virtually everything is given a tax which is completely absurd considering how much money the government could collect for just one balikbayan box.
The tax outweighs the original price of the item, and people are calling out the BOC to justify why are there even taxes for balikbayan boxes. The Bureau of Customs certainly is treading on muddy waters now as it faces criticism and rage from every direction. What do you think of the Bureau of Customs' latest plan? Is it a good idea? Or they should scrap it out? Let us know in the comments below.
Marcos noted that the balikbayan box system used by OFWs to send personal goods to their loved ones in the Philippines started during the administration of his father, the late President Ferdinand Marcos, when Section 105 of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines was amended to provide duty and tax-free privileges to OFWs. The latest sample of this was posted by a Facebook page called Ignore Rants, in referral to the issue of the Bureau of Customs in opening balikbayan boxes and implementing taxes which are clearly bloated. A box was delivered from the post-office from London and then the staff decided to open the box. They spotted a Gucci bag, which the staff says a tax is required to be paid. They then searched for the bag online to check its original price, then seemingly found a similar bag with a price of about $1,200. Then they calculated the equivalent tax and resulted in a whopping PHP15,959.00. The package was sent by a family member from London and was ready to be picked up by a relative. Little did they know that their pockets would soon run shallow even before getting a chance to get ahold of their delivered package from their loved ones. The post says even a book is taxed, virtually everything is given a tax which is completely absurd considering how much money the government could collect for just one balikbayan box.
The tax outweighs the original price of the item, and people are calling out the BOC to justify why are there even taxes for balikbayan boxes. The Bureau of Customs certainly is treading on muddy waters now as it faces criticism and rage from every direction. What do you think of the Bureau of Customs' latest plan? Is it a good idea? Or they should scrap it out? Let us know in the comments below.
Maraming salamat, Bureau of Customs at PhiPost Corporation. Kayo ang dahilan kung bakit umuunlad ang Pilipinas. Biro...
Posted by Ignore Rants on Saturday, August 22, 2015
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