The Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Land Transportation Office (LTO) have signed a memorandum of agreement for the real-time transfer of records on payments of customs duties and taxes for imported vehicles to the LTO’s new Land Transportation Management System (LTMS).

With the new system, the BOC said only vehicles whose importers have paid the proper duties and taxes are allowed registration by the LTO.

The system will minimize human intervention in the transmittal of duties and payment records.

The system will ensure that only legally imported vehicles will ply the roads of the country.

It further strengthens the campaign against smuggled and surplus vehicles and streamlines the vehicle registration processes.

BOC Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero and LTO chief Assistant Secretary Edgar Galvante attended the virtual event with senior officers and division chiefs of both agencies.

The agencies agreed to coordinate closely on the real-time transmission of the BOC-Certificate of Payment records through their respective interconnected IT networks.

The agencies’ IT networks are pursuant to the Republic Act No. 8792 or E-Commerce law and Republic Act No. 6539 or Anti-Carnapping law.

Through this link-up, the BOC said it will regularly report to the LTO all shipments of imported vehicles and components.

The link-up includes the BOC’s Cargo Clearance Process Systems and Electronic Certificate of Payments, and the LTO’s LTMS.

The BOC said LTO’s LTMS was set up by leading German technology provider, Dermalog.

The system allows the integration of all records and processes related to vehicle registration and issuances of drivers’ licenses under one system owned and controlled by the LTO.

While affording LTO clients all the conveniences of online transactions, the LTMS also safeguards all user data in accordance with Republic Act No. 10173 or Data Privacy Act.