Unite, all Overseas Filipinos!

NOW this I don’t get. Taxing and opening Balikbayan Boxes (BB)? At the start of the ghost month, the Aquino administration is playing a joke on us, both to the sender and the receiver. Oh Mar, the joke is also on you!

Per the Commission on Overseas Filipinos, there are 10,460,327 to 13,500,000 Filipinos abroad as of FY2012. Of this, 2.3 million are Overseas Filipino Workers or OFWs based on the 2014 Survey of Overseas Filipinos. Now, here comes the Bureau of Customs (BOC) plan to open balikbayan boxes at random and impose tax on the personal effects of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). Imagine just 20% of the total Overseas Filipinos sending BBs. Have you actually done a cost benefit analysis? Have you studied the impact of that? Just like your plate numbers and license cards, simple things not delayed before but are now the symbol of Tuwid na Daan. Unintended consequences? What if 10 million send BBs? The BOC can randomly check for a representative sample? Wouldn’t that cause bottlenecks? Nearing Yuletide Season, the busiest month at the ports?