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MANILA – The Bureau of Customs temporarily suspended the guidelines on duty- and tax-free privileges for consolidated balikbayan boxes.
Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have complained that the requirements were too tedious.
The Department of Foreign Affairs welcomed the development.
“We would like to thank the Bureau of Customs and also the Department of Finance for being sensitive to the needs of our kababayans abroad and for listening to their appeals,” Foreign Affairs secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said in a statement.
The bureau will not implement Customs Administrative Order No. 05-2016 and Customs Memorandum Order No. 04-2017 until March 31, 2018.
This means Filipinos abroad will not be required to present proofs of purchase for items they place inside balikbayan boxes that they send to their families in the Philippines, among other requirements.
In August, the Customs had started allowing overseas Filipinos to send up to three tax-free shipments to their loved ones in the Philippines as long as the total cost of the goods does not exceed P150,000.
But the guidelines required those availing themselves of the tax-free privilege to accomplish an information sheet, submit a photocopy of their Philippine passport, and a copy of the invoice and proof of purchase of the goods contained in the balikbayan boxes.
Philippine embassies and consulates general in the United States and other balikbayan box-sending countries have been receiving requests for assistance from Filipino communities affected by the orders, Cayetano said. (PNA and ABS-CBN News)
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