News Archive

17 April 2008

E-Konek Pilipinas is first VASP to be accredited for Phase 2 or Client Profile Registration System (CPRS). BOC Commissioner Napoleon Morales issued accreditation on April 3, 2008.

CPRS requires the below users to register thru an accredited VASP the required data that will determine how their transactions will be processed by the E2M system:

Click on Client type for Required Data

E-KONEK ADVISORY
SUBJECT: E2M Comes to Batangas

BOC DIRECTIVE ON TOTAL PHASE-OUT OF ENTRY ENCODERS' SERVICES IN PUC BUSINESS CENTERS BY JANUARY 31, 2008
15 January 2008

Read more...

E-KONEK ADVISORY
28 December 2007

FOR: CEBU and MACTAN Brokers

SUBJECT: Improving Rate of Successful Lodgement of Entries

E-Konek has been carefully monitoring the implementation of Phase 1 of E2M Customs in Cebu, which started on 03 December 2007 with the Entry Encoding Centers at Cebu International Port and BOC Sub-Port of Mactan still in operation; through 17 December 2007, when the Centers were closed; to date.

We wish to share with you some information on the progress of the implementation as of 27 December 2007, as follows:

1. Fifty three (53) Cebu brokers are already using the E-Konek VASP;

2. Brokers have been able to compose and lodge formal/consumption and warehousing entries without encountering any difficulty, confirming that the E-Konek VASP is easily accessible;

3. Brokers have lodged a total of 554 entries, all of which the E-Konek VASP successfully transmitted to the Cebu and Mactan Customs Servers. Unfortunately, however, only 269 declarations,. or 49 % of the total number, were successfully processed by the BOC. The other 285 declarations lodged generated error responses from the BOC System.

4. “Manifest does not exist.” Is the most common error response given by the BOC System for declarations which were not processed successfully. Other common error responses provided by the BOC System include:

   • “B/L does not exist”
   • “Pre-paid account number does not exist”
   • “Package incompatible”
   • “Gross weight incompatible”

Towards ensuring a higher rate of successful entry lodgements, please take note of the following important points and recommendations:

1. The error response “Manifest does not exist” may be caused by a wrong format in the Manifest number encoded. Examples of correct Manifest numbers are: APL0021-07 and RCL0042-07. The format consists of three capital letters, immediately followed by (Note: no space) a four digit number, a dash (i.e., -) and the last two digits of the current year. The letter O should never be used as substitute for zero (0) and vice versa.

2. The error response “Manifest does not exist” may also be due to the fact that the Manifest may not have been uploaded into the BOC System. This includes situations wherein the Manifests, while already submitted to and received by the BOC, have not yet been up-loaded in the BOC System.

   E-Konek recommends that brokers check with the concerned shipping line and/or consolidator/forwarder whether the BOC has already received the corresponding electronic Manifest. It may also be good to allow some time for up-loading of the Manifest in the BOC System before lodging a Declaration.

   (Note: In January 2008, E-Konek, in cooperation with the Association of International Shipping Lines (AISL), will start providing Manifest status information to brokers (i.e., whether or not specific Manifests have been submitted to the BOC) through its Help Desk in the One-Stop Shop Export Documentation (OSEDC) operated by the PHILEXPORT Cebu.

   In addition, the BOC is working on full implementation in Cebu and Mactan of the Electronic Manifest System (EMS), which has been operating in the Port of Manila (POM) and the Manila International Container Port (MICP) for several years already. The BOC estimates implementation of the EMS in Cebu will stabilize by January 2008.)

3. The error response “B/L does not exist” is usually due to an incorrectly encoded Bill of Lading number, which includes switching of digits or cases where the letter O is substituted for zero (0). A broker who gets a “B/L does not exist” response should, therefore, immediately check the B/L number encoded against the B/L number in the Bill of Lading document or, when in doubt, consult the concerned consolidator/forwarder.

4. The error response “Prepaid account number does not exist.”, which occurs only in Warehouse Entries, usually results from the encoding of the number of a a Prepaid Account which does not belong to the Consignee in the Declaration.

5. The BOC System checks the data encoded in Box No. 6 (Total Package) and Box 31 (Package and Description of Goods), as well as in Box No. 35 (Item Gross Weight) and Box No. 38 (Item Net Weight) against data indicated in the corresponding Bill of Lading/Packing List. The error responses “Package incompatible” and “Gross weight incompatible” are generated by the BOC System in cases where the numbers of packages or gross weight encoded in the Declarations exceeds or is greater than the corresponding quantity-data provided in the Bill of Lading.

6. There were cases where brokers, who did not receive any error responses from the BOC System, encountered difficulties in releasing their import shipments. In most cases, their declarations were not processed by the BOC Entry Processing Unit thus, forcing them to file a Post Entry Form. These cases resulted from the encoding of a “wrong” Declarant Reference Number.

   Declarant Reference Numbers (DRNs) is a unique number which are “internal to a specific Declarant. DRNs consist purely of letters and/or number-digits, and must not contain any special character such as a dash (-) or a space between the letters and numbers. Brokers should be very careful, therefore, and make sure that their DRNs are correct and do not contain any special characters and/or spaces.

Implementation of Phase 1 of E2M Customs in Cebu is just in its starting stage. Brokers currently encountering some difficulties may take comfort in the fact that their counterparts in Metro Manila and Luzon experienced just as much, if not more hardships than they. After only about a month from the closure of the operation of the EECs, notwithstanding the fact that the BOC processes over a thousand declarations lodged through the E-Konek VASP, only a very few users call the Help Desk for technical assistance.

E-Konek is very confident Cebu brokers will require a much shorter time to comfortably master Phase 1 of E2M Customs.

The foregoing, notwithstanding, E-Konek has decided to start the New Year right by sending to Cebu two of its best VASP Technical Experts on E2M Customs to conduct training and consultations for brokers and their entry encoders, as well as Help Desk personnel, as follows:

Training of Brokers and Entry Encoders : Mr. Albert Pilac

Afternoon Session : 1:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Early Evening Session : 5:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
02 (Wednesday) to 05 (Saturday) and 07 (Monday) January 2008
Netopia (Ground Floor), Shoe Mart Cebu

Help Desk Consultations : Mr. Joseph Vidad

8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., 02 January 2008 (Wednesday)
PHILEXPORT One-Stop Shop Documentation Center (OSDEC)
Third Floor, LDM Building
M.J. Cuenco Avenue corner Legaspi Street, Cebu City
Telephone Nos. : (032) 254-4333; 254-9266 and 255-1133

8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., 03 January 2008 (Thursday)
Cargohaus, U-Freight Compound
Cargo Access Road, MCIAA Complex, Lapu Lapu City
Telephone No. : (032) 340-0201; (032) 340-0207 local 4728

For more information and/or to reserve for training participation, please call the Cebu Help Desks in the contact numbers provided below:

E-Konek Help Desks in Cebu:

E-Konek Cebu

Jimmy Tampipi
(032) 340-0201
(032) 340-0207 local 4728
0917 873-7148

PHILEXPORT

Jun Abines
(032) 254-4333; 254-9266

Frank Flores
255-1133

E-Konek Help Desk in Metro Manila

(02) 386-3384, 85 and 86
(02) 386-3942 and 45
(02) 382-4865 and 67 1-800-108 EKONEK (356635)

 

Do remember … “THE EARLIER YOU GET TO THE WATER, THE EARLIER YOU CAN GET THROUGH THE TIDE.”

Thank you very much for your continued trust and confidence.

NO VASP REGISTRATION, NO ENTRY Policy by 5 Nov 2007

Please click here to view the memorandum.

Customs accredits another third-party firm

THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) recently accredited its second-private partner, which will help facilitate the country’s import transactions and enable businesses to transact with the bureau online.

Headed by a former Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) chief, E-Konek Pilipinas will lodge and record formal and warehousing entries from the importers’ or brokers’ offices, in mobile facilities, or even in Internet cafes such as the one provided by the Port Users Confederation Business Center located within the premises of the Port of Manila.

Many of the company’s senior technical staff members used to develop and install the bureau’s original Automated Customs Operating System, helping make the country’s customs service attain world-class standards in the late nineties.

SHOWN is Guillermo L. Parayno Jr. in this 2002 Bloomberg photo taken when he still headed the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the government’s largest revenue source. Parayno is now the president of E-Konek Pilipinas, a company recently accredited by the customs bureau to enable importers to transact with the agency through the Internet. The company is also managed by former Customs commissioner Alberto Lina, who also controls the privately-held Air 21, the Philippine partner of FedEx.

Owing to the accreditation of the second value-added service provider (VASP), the agency is set to shutter Entry Encoding Centers, which was crucial back when the computer systems used by the Bureau were not yet Internet-based.
E-Konek is headed by former BIR chief Guillermo L. Parayno Jr. and former Customs commissioner Alberto Lina. Lina, a brother of former senator Jose “Joey” Lina Jr., owns Air21, the local partner of FedEx.

In a statement, Parayno, the company’s president, said that E-Konek is ready to assist brokers in organizing and establishing their own customs work stations. He also said that the company is offering free use of its VASP facilities for one week to the first 20 registrants in the Port of Manila, Manila International Container Port and Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Brokers may also use the facilities of some “Mail & More” business outlets all over the country where they will be assisted by trained encoders to lodge their declarations, he added.

Earlier, Angelito Colona, president of the Port Users Confederation, already advised its members to use the facilities and services of the PUC Business Center established within the premises of the Port of Manila since two VASPs have a combined capacity sufficient to process the total number of entries filed daily.

E-Konek’s accreditation came months after the customs bureau endorsed InterCommerce Network Services, a company that also worked with the bureau since the early 90s.

The said service providers will serve as the agency’s frontliners for most of its public transactions.

The program called “E2M Customs” or Electronic to Mobile Customs is expected to completed by end of the year. The said system will enable importers, exporters, brokers, forwarders, banks, government agencies and all other parties that transact with the BOC to do most of their businesses online.

* Taken from Business Mirror, October 10, 2007 by VG Cabuag

Invitation to Express Interest and Pre-Qualify

1. E-Konek Pilipinas, Inc., an IT company focusing on Value-Added Solutions for e-governance, is embarking on several major projects by the start of 2008. As a systems integrator, E-Konek is building its database of third–party IT solution providers for possible partnerships, outsourcing or body shop contracting.


2. If you are an IT company with expertise in the following areas, we invite you to introduce your company, and your special competence by submitting a company portfolio described further below.
   
   

   • Software Design – Java Framework, Services, Workflow
   • Systems Administration and Database Administration – Unix/ Linux, Oracle 10G primarily
   • Custom Software Development –Use of Open-source software products, J2EE, Configuration Management / version control systems, WEB Application Development, test automation, mobile and hand-held solutions
   • Facilities Management – Network design, network monitoring, data center operations and management

   
   
3. The Company portfolio should be structured as follows:
   
   
   • Company Introduction - A one-page description of the company, its mission and vision, and grand plans
   • Company profile (please attach news clippings, video clips where your company was featured.)

     1. Company ownership structure - major stockholders
     2. Company management
     3. Capitalization
     4. Affiliations - partnerships, value-added resellerships, exclusive hardware or software agreements
   • Skill Set
     1. Principal technical staff (with individual resumes)
   • Five (5) Notable Accomplishments / Projects
     1. Project Name and short description
     2. Client
     3. Participation (either as main proponent, sub-contract) and project deliverables
     4. Project dates
     5. Technology tools and systems methodology and standards employed in the project
     6. Client gains attained with project implementation
     
     
     
4. The company portfolio may be submitted in a CD, labeled

   “Company Portfolio”
   Submission to E-Konek in compliance with
   Invitation to Express Interest and Pre-Qualify
   <Company Name>

   addressed to:

   Mr. Guillermo L. Parayno, Jr.
   President
   E-Konek Pilipinas, Inc.
   Unit 6D, Washington Towers
   Pacific Ave., Asiaworld City, Paranaque City
   Telefax: (632) 879 8310 Tel: (632) 879 4207

   Or if less than 10MB in size, as a file attachment to an e-mail addressed to:

   Mr. Guillermo L. Parayno, Jr.
   glparayno@ekonek.com

5. After short listing, the companies that pre-qualified shall be asked to do presentations to E-Konek for clarification and confirmation of. submitted portfolio. If necessary, E-Konek can sign mutual Non-Disclosure Agreements with the short-listed companies before the presentations.


6. This invitation is open from 22 October 2007 to 15 December 2007.

Guillermo L. Parayno, Jr.
President

One-Time Tax Transaction (ONET³) Certified by BIR

E-Konek Pilipinas with the collaboration of Economic Modernization through Efficient Reforms and Governance Enhancement (EMERGE) and endorsement of Foundation for Revenue Enhancement (FReE) has been issued a Product Acceptance Certificate by the Bureau of Internal Revenue for the One-Time Tax Transaction (ONET³) project last August 16, 2007.

With the acceptance of the ONET³ system, a one month pilot test will be done in two Regional District Offices assigned by BIR. After the success of this pilot test, ONET³ will be made available to the taxpayers via the internet. This will allow the taxpayers to conveniently file and self-assess their liabilities for the Capital Gains Tax or Expanded Withholding Tax.

With this new milestone, E-Konek has again carried out its vision of providing people and businesses convenient and effective access to government services.

EKO PEZA RCBC MOA

Ekonek Pilipinas, Inc, an accredited Value-Added Service Provider of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority for the Automated Import Permit (AIP) system, signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation last October 2006. RCBC is the first bank offering e-payment thru the Internet on the AIP website.

Mr Alberto D. Lina, Chairman of Ekonek Pilipinas and Mr. Rizalino Navarro, Executive Vice-Chairman and CEO of RCBC signed the agreement, with Mr.Cesar Virata, Corporate Vice-Chairman of RCBC, Ms. Lilia de Lima, Director-General of PEZA, and Mr. Francisco Magsajo, President and COO of RCBC witnessing at the top floor of the RCBC Towers in Makati.

PEZA Director General Lilia de Lima congratulates Guillermo L. Parayno Jr., President of E-Konek Pilipinas, Inc., on the accreditation of E-Konek as a Value Added Service Provider for the Automated Import Permit System effective September 1, 2006.