But actually, there is another culprit, I don't know if they have some relationship with the Customs Bureau, but it feels like there is. I'm talking about DHL, the courier service.
When I bought two books and sent them to the Philippines, I understood that the cost of shipping is higher than the cost of the books, and that there might be some customs duty taxes that maybe imposed on the shipment. I've ordered books online before and I've never been charged any high customs taxes even for books that were worth more than US$ 50. I received those books through the Philippine Postal Service.
However, it is unfortunate that DHL was used for the shipping service this time around.
As I have mentioned on my blog post yesterday, there is some issue on the levying of customs duty taxes on imported books in the Philippines. Supposedly because the Philippines is a signatory to the Florence Agreement, there should be no duty taxes. But the Bureau of Customs in the Philippines, contrary to this international agreement, imposes duty taxes on books but no more than 5%, plus 12% value-added-tax.
We cannot do anything about this, so initially we could accept a 5% + 12% = 17% tax on our books, which is around 266 JPY (around 142 PHP) only of the 1567 JPY value of the books.
But now DHL is charging for so much more.
They said that the 17% should be charged on the cost of the books AND the shipping. So because the shipping cost (based on my invoice and as deducted from my credit card) is 2500 JPY, 17% of 4067 JPY (1567+2500) is 691 JPY (369 PHP). This is frustrating, but because we cannot fight against DHL or the Customs (we are but only citizens) and we cannot do anything about all this, okay fine, we can still accept paying such costs.
But now, they say that shipping charges are equivalent to around 4788 JPY, and not 2500 JPY! I don't know where they got that number, or how they invented a shipping cost of 4788 JPY when clearly from my invoice the shipping is only 2500 JPY! I mean if they know of any documentation, they should just provide us, right? But no, they just simply asked us to pay for taxes on a 4788 JPY shipping rate and not 2500 JPY. Don't they even check such very simple matter? They actually have a copy of our invoice with the actual shipping rate!
There is some word that if the cost of the shipments are less than 50 USD, there are no customs duties to be paid. I am not sure how true is this. But my orders' cost is approximately 18 USD, and the shipment cost (2500 JPY) is approximately 29 USD so the total is only around 47 USD. This is probably the reason why they artificially inflated the cost of shipment from 2500 JPY (29 USD) to 4788 JPY (55 USD), to increase the total "dutiable" costs from around 47 USD to 73 USD (now greater than 50 USD)! Apparently, 55 USD is already the cheapest rate. So if there is such a 50 USD exemption, and shipping charges are also levied a duty, and meanwhile they are using shipping charges over 50 USD, then practically all imports will be levied duty taxes?????? Again, I am not very sure about this 50 USD exemption. Maybe it's an old rule. Still, why inflate???
But anyway, clearly, someone is trying to steal money from us, and taking advantage of our situation (i.e. that we cannot fight them because they are a big company and we are only "customers").
DHL would claim that it is the Bureau of Customs that charges these things. But I heard that other shipping companies (like FedEx) charge much less than what DHL charges in terms of customs duties. Maybe because these other companies exert the extra little effort to report actual shipping costs to Customs. How difficult is it to look at a piece of paper?
And maybe those other companies are unlike DHL who charges a slew of other things: an import processing fee, a handling fee, and an "informal entry declaration." and we're also supposed to pay for value-added-taxes on a certain brokerage fee, "documentary stamps," and again the import processing fee. Okay, so maybe those are Customs-mandated fees. To tell you the truth, I see DHL and the Customs as one and the same thing. Or, that they are like "kumpadres." Birds of the same feather flock together.
This was sent by a certain Ms. Rose from DHL. Usually you would hear people just say "I'm only following orders from my superiors." Or I need to meet deadlines. Or targets. Whatever! Sounds like the Customs to me.
Anyone know e-mail addresses of big wigs at DHL we can flood with comments? Unfortunately for this Ms. Rose or whoever are on the first rung of the corporate ladder, they might also need to find a new job, because typical of many big companies in the Philippines, they just fire off these frontliners who make a bad name for them, to "wash their hands" on this matter. The thing is, this is DHL. DHL should take responsibility. Otherwise, obviously DHL is not a service we can trust.
So now they are charging us a total value of equivalently 2953 JPY, which is almost TWO TIMES the value of the books we ordered, and nearly THREE TIMES more than what we believe should be the total of customs taxes (customs duties and value-added-tax) that we should only be paying for.
We are willing to pay for the customs taxes and those alone, because those are the only ones I expected to pay. We are not willing to pay the additional charges that DHL or Customs (are they twins?) has put upon us, including the artificial adjustment of the shipping costs which affected the amount of taxes.
We cannot do anything about this now. Except definitely, all online establishments should not choose DHL anymore, and definitely no, we consumers, who pay for services such as this, should not choose them anymore as welll. Or at least that there should always be an option to choose which shipping company to use, so that we can choose companies other than DHL.
DHL should likewise pay for all their sins against the Filipino people. Or at least show some concern! They are being accomplices of and just as evil (or maybe more) than the Customs. If the Customs are Cultural Killers, DHL is like a rapist of the already murdered victims. Apparently, blood is thicker than water. Their Kumpareng Customs' trust is more important than ours.
Boycott DHL!
No comments:
Post a Comment