Congress studying exemption from salary rules for Customs
Posted on August 19, 2015 08:40:00 PM
WAYS AND MEANS Committee Chairman Senator Juan Edgardo M. Angara said on Wednesday that he is looking into the possible exemption of Bureau of Customs (BoC) officials from the Salary Standardization Law (SSL) as one of the reforms in the proposed Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA).
“By exempting the BoC from the government’s salary cap, we could provide better pay for our Customs officials that would allow us to hire more competent employees and reward honest officials. But before we make any increase in their pay scale, there should be improved qualification and performance benchmarks in place to further professionalize its ranks,” Mr. Angara said in a statement.
Customs Deputy Commissioner Agaton T. Uvero had brought up the exemption during Monday’s hearing on the proposed measure, which has been declared priority legislation by both Malacañang and Congress.
Mr. Angara previously expressed support for the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s exemption from the SSL “as long as it entails higher responsibility and accountability from the biggest revenue agency.”
Once the CMTA is enacted, customs procedures would be fully automated and customs valuation and inspection procedures would be streamlined to make them more transparent.
The full automation of customs procedures is expected to improve the ease of doing business.
“With the modernization and computerization of the BoC, less human contact would be required. We want to minimize the discretion of officials to eliminate the alleged rampant corruption in the bureau,” said Mr. Angara.
Based on a 2013 SWS Survey of Enterprises on Corruption, the BoC is the most corrupt government office in the country.
“When enacted, CMTA will enable the BoC to adopt global best practices such as automation and risk management which would substantially reduce transaction costs, encourage greater trade, and raise revenue collections,” Mr. Angara said.
Mr. Angara also urged the BoC to implement Republic Act 9335 or the Lateral Attrition Law which provides that officials and personnel of government collection agencies may received financial incentives for exceeding their collection targets.
On the other hand, they may be relieved or dismissed from office for not accomplishing their collection targets.
According to a BoC job posting last year, Customs Operations Officers I-IV have salary grades of 10, 11, 13, 16 and 18 respectively while Administrative Officers I-V have salary grades of 10, 11, 15 and 18 respectively.
Salary Grade 10 Step 1 currently corresponds to a salary of P17,255, while the Step 1 for grades 11, 13, 15, 16 and 18 are P21,436, P24,887, P26,878 and P31,351. — Elizabeth E. Escaño
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