WITH the recent suspension of a Customs directive imposing lengthy procedures in sending balikbayan boxes, cargo forwarders are noting an upswing in shipments as the peak season goes full swing.
“It started picking up last week,” Allan Michael Bautista, LBC sales and marketing senior manager for the Middle East, told The Filipino Times. “We are experiencing the peak season. We are doing full time operations na. We are trying to increase our capacity,” he added.
Bautista said LBC is now handling between 500 and 600 customers a day with daily shipment of two containers leaving the UAE for Manila.
“If they (customers) send their boxes in mid-October, darating yun before Christmas – anywhere between Dec. 1 and Dec. 20. Kung hindi nga sya sasabay sa arrival sa Manila ng iba pang containers from elsewhere around the world, darating box nila before end-November,” Bautista said.
Michelle Q. Guinto managing director and CEO of CMG Group, another forwarding company, meantime said their traffic is doing fine, albeit not as busy as traditionally had been in the past years’ peak season.
“Medyo hesitant pa rin ang mga tao. Marami pa rin silang tanong. Hindi lahat fully aware that the Customs directive has been suspended. Nagpi-pick-up na sya, hindi nga lang gaya ng volume last year,” Guinto said. (People are still a bit hesitant. They still have many questions. Not everyone is fully aware that the Customs directive has been suspended. It’s picking up but not like year’s volume.)
Nonetheless, Guinto said their company is servicing over 500 customers a day.
Marz Marcial, Makati Express and Prime Express business development officer, said business is also picking up. “So far, maraming inquiry kung kailan ang last pick naming na aabot ng Christmas,” he said.
Marcial said OFWS sending to Manila have till end of October for their boxes to make it before Christmas.
It will be recalled that the Bureau of Customs has issued a directive several months back imposing lengthy procedures on shipping balikbayan boxes for them to be tax-free.
Customs Memorandum Order 04-2017 was supposed to take full effect on August, 1, 2017 but had been postponed following protests from stakeholders including overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and cargo forwarders themselves.
On Sept. 28, 2014 Commissioner Isidro S. Lapena issued a directive suspending the order apparently for OFWs to push on with their Christmas plans and send gifts to loved ones back home without worries of delay in deliveries. (Jojo Dass)
