Other countries require container deposit - AISL
Association of International Shipping Lines (AISL), the country’s largest group of shipping lines and operators, said other countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, among others requires container deposit.
AISL President Patrick Ronas pointed this out in a statement issued Wednesday, Feb. 8, to counter the claims by the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) that the container deposit is only required in the country by shipping lines.
“That is fake news. Since containers contain valuable items or goods, container deposit is a standard and internationally-recognized practice in the supply chain industry,” said Ronas.
Unfortunately, Ronas said, there are a lot of misinformation and disinformation surrounding the Trusted Operator Program – Container Registry and Monitoring System (TOP-CRMS) of the PPA. Ronas alleged that the system costs P980 million.
“We don’t see the TOP-CRMS to be cost-efficient. It will only add another layer to the process. We see it as an additional cost considering that, as of the moment, the way we do our processes, it is already digitized,” said Ronas.
“It is damaging to the industry and it will hurt ordinary Filipinos ultimately,” Ronas added.
About 17 business organizations called on President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and the Congress to immediately scrap the PPA from implementing the container registry and monitoring system.
“There is a difference between having a deposit and having a cost outright,” Ronas stressed.
He explained that the P980 per container that importers will pay because of the TOP-CRMS is fixed and not refundable. In contrast, the container deposit that importers pay to the shipping lines is refundable and negotiable upon return of the container to the depot.
Ronas explained that while there may be issues surrounding the container deposit, he said the regulation of container deposit is now being discussed in the House of Representatives.
These issues, he said, cannot be addressed by the TOP-CRMS, because the PPA is not the regulator of international shipping lines.
On the contrary, the TOP-CRMS project, the first in the world, will incur more cost on the part of the importers in an import-dominant country, Ronas stressed.
On top of the P980 per container, Ronas said shipping lines will also have to pay P3,520 to the PPA and its service provider, which is also fixed and non-refundable, for using the PPA staging facility.
In the earlier version of the TOP-CRMS, Ronas cited that PPA and its partner service provider even included payment of P18,000 for transporting the container from ports to PPA’s staging area in Bulacan and another P18,000 to return the container +in Manila.
“These are exorbitant amounts. For something we do not have to do as there are systems in place between the shipping lines and the terminals. The system is working so why fix something that’s not broken,” Ronas said.
"It is also not consistent with the Requirements of the Philippine Competition Act as all truck and other service providers have to register into one system,” he noted.
“We are relieved to hear that the PPA Board has deferred the implementation indefinitely but obviously the PPA Management continues to justify the TOP-CRMS vehemently. We will continue to oppose the program for being excessive, anti-business, and duplicative of the functions of the Bureau of Customs, among other things,” Ronas said.
These additional expenses, he said, will ultimately have to be passed on to the consumers, as he warned of the system resulting in higher prices of logistics and basic commodities.
Ronas also said that what the PPA is trying to do is beyond its mandate.
“It’s not their purview, it’s the Bureau of Customs under the CMTA Law,” Ronas said.
“If they are talking of digitization, we are already digitized,” Ronas said.
“When you go digital, it is supposed to make more things more efficient and cheaper. But it will not be the case when TOP-CRMS is implemented. It will worsen the logistics cost and it will only worsen the processes violating the spirit of the Anti-Red Tape Act and the Ease of Doing Business Law,” Ronas said.
He recalled that even the Bureau of Customs, during a technical working group held by the House of Representatives, emphasized that under the law the BoC is supposed to do the monitoring, especially if the containers get out of the terminal, not the PPA.