Save 20% off! Join our newsletter and get 20% off right away!

Balikbayan Box Law (BBL) OK to exempt most OFW cargo from taxes – Recto

1a
QUEZON CITY, Philippines – Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto today hailed the passage of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) which raises to P150,000 the tax-exempt value of pasalubong cargo brought in or sent by overseas Filipinos.
Although the provision on the tax treatment of balikbayan boxes is but one of the many in the 311-page bill, “it is one that is most awaited by Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs),” Recto said.
“And we can now report to them that the Balikbayan Box Law (BBL) has passed the Senate,” Recto said.
Recto filed Senate Bill 2913, or what he dubbed the “BBL”, in August last year after a public outcry over a Bureau of Customs’ (BoC) plan to open and inspect balikbayan boxes revealed outdated regulations, one of which taxes any box whose contents is worth more than P10,000.
The BBL was later incorporated into the CMTA as Section 800 by Senator Sonny Angara, chair of the Senate Ways and Means committee.
“Yan ang Super Section 800 na nagbibigay pribilehiyo sa mga OFWs na mag-uwi o magpadala sa Pilipinas ng mga bagay na kanilang pinaghirapan na hindi bubuwisan,” he said.
“Kapag pirmado na ang CMTA, bawat balikbayan box ay protektado ng Super Section 800,” Recto said.

Criselda Cabangon David, a happy mother of two kids, is a full-time Sociologist at the City Government of Lucena, Quezon Province. She is currently the Managing Editor of Ang Diaryo Natin Sunday News, a weekly local community newspaper in the Philippines and an active member of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.