ANNOUNCEMENT | eNEWSLETTER DEC 2008
 
 
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IMPORTANT

NEW CUSTOMS REGULATION IN COLOMBIA

Please be advised that in Colombia the new Customs regulation with the new system called MUISCA is very strict and precise and requires our maximum attention in order to get the information correctly submitted and specially on time.

Please have all your operation staff to read the information very carefully in order to accomplish this new regulation and avoid penalties and extra costs.

TIME TO SUBMIT DOCUMENTS TO CUSTOMS

All Bill of Loading's data must be submitted 72 hours before the cargo's arrival. 

For long transit times cargo, the receiving agent must receive full pre-alert (with copies of MBL and HBLs) as soon as the cargo leaves port of loading. As for the short transit times cargo, this must be prepared and sent to the receiving agent before the shipment's departure.

PENALTIES

If receiving agent does not receive this information on time to be submitted:

• they will receive penalties that go up to 50% of freight value. These penalties will of course be charged to the agent that does not send the information on time.

• eventually, when accumulating various penalties, receiving agent will lose its operation license.

PLEASE DO NOT REFERENCE THE RECEIVING AGENT TO OTHERS PRIOR THEIR ACCEPTANCE

ADDITIONAL DATA REQUESTED ON BLs

In order to avoid any mishandling, receiving agent will need to have the prealert notice as soon as possible to review if everything is OK and to be certain about the description of the cargo and its HC. They need have the most specific and detailed description of the cargo, any generic description is not allowed.

ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS –RECEIPT-

To release the cargo at port and before their National Customs, receiving agent must have all the original documents: MBL and HBL. Express Release is not a valid figure in Colombia . They will always require original documents either printed at origin or at destination.

For consolidated containers, they must receive the original MBL, 48 hours before the arrival of the cargo to have everything ready at the right moment.