Bonner loosens rules for monthly duty payments
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is stepping up its efforts to spur more companies to pay duties on a monthly basis instead of for each import transaction.
Commissioner Robert Bonner said the agency would soon open the periodic payment feature to companies that are not interested in using the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), the new umbrella computer system being phased in to process imports and communicate with importers and their agents. CBP will place a notice in the Federal Register in the next few weeks removing the requirement that consolidated payments are only available to importers and brokers that set up ACE accounts.
Bonner told about 150 industry representatives Wednesday he is also sending letters to the chief financial officers of the top 100 companies that pay the most duties to encourage their participation and point out the financial benefits of using the periodic monthly statement system, according to a copy of his speech to the Trade Support Network, a CBP advisory forum.
“I have to tell you, however, that I foresee a time when we will mandate that all — or nearly all — duty and fee collections will be on a monthly basis,” Bonner said.
CBP has collected $1.3 billion in duties and fees since the feature was introduced in July 2004 as a part of ACE, according to CBP. In August $258 million in duties and fees from 53,147 entries were paid through the periodic monthly statement feature of ACE. The process is designed to streamline customs transactions and pull an importer's activity together into a single national account.
But overall the number of importers who are using ACE to make consolidated monthly payments is still small, representing only 9 percent of total duties and fees collected by the agency.
Last week CBP said it will no longer require importers and customs brokers with periodic monthly statements to submit a bond rider to cover estimated duties and fees, and earlier this year dropped the prerequisite that importers belong to the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism in order to be eligible for an ACE account.
Under the optional periodic payment system, importers can accumulate a month’s worth of entries on a statement for electronic debit payment at one time, much like a credit card bill. Payments are due 15 business days after the end of the month in which the merchandise is entered or released, enabling the importer to float some duty payments for more than 45 days.
Most import duties and fees are still paid the traditional way, which grants importers and their brokers 10 business days to make payments on each import transaction.