With the Port of Manila set to roll out of the new online customs assessment and payment system, UCPB organized recently a briefing on the system’s mechanics that drew an overflow crowd of 200 importers and customs brokers at the bank’s corporate headquarters in Makati City.

Known as Electronic-to-Mobile Customs-Imports and Assessment System or e2m for short, the new system will allow importers and their brokers to send their customs declarations to the Bureau of Customs, receive their payment instructions from the agency, and remit their customs duties through an authorized agent bank online.

Officials of the bank, the Bureau of Customs (BoC) and its service provider Intercommerce Network Services, Inc., walked the attendees through the procedures for enrolling in the new system, submitting their customs declaration and paying their customs duties online.

Being fully automated, e2m will do away with the huge amount of paperwork and tedious re-keying of data required in the current manual preparation, submission and approval of customs documentation. This will speed up the release of cargoes and reduce the cost of importers and brokers.

Under the new system, the importers will simply have to lodge their import entry declaration online, with their broker sending the final assessment via www.intercommerce.com.ph or the websites of the two other service providers. The BoC, in turn, will send the lodgment to the authorized agency bank for matching of the importer’s name against the account name. The bank then debits the account nominated by the client for the corresponding payment and sends a confirmation to the BoC. Upon receipt of the confirmation, the bureau will release the shipment.

UCPB is one of the BOC's authorized agent banks. The bank provides importers and brokers using e2m the added convenience of being able to check their payments through the internet banking facility, UCPB.biz.