In support to the Philippine government’s thrust of promoting transparency, efficiency and ease of undertaking business transactions with the general public, an Electronic Payment System (ePayment) have been developed by PPA for use of its clients nationwide.
On 23 May 2017, a pilot test run was conducted for the e-Payment in PMO Misamis Oriental / Cagayan de Oro. A series of orientation training and hands-on sessions were conducted last 23-25 May 2017 by the PPA Head Office ICT Department via video conference among PMO Management and employees, shipping line representatives, ship agents, permittees, and lessees, respectively. Both the employees and port users showed excitement about the system and provided positive feedback and suggestions to further improve the system. On 26 May 2017, the e-payment went live on the web and may be accessed thru https://epms.ppa.com.ph/e-payment/.
ePayment is a web-based, online application available as a facility for processing payments for all applicable PPA business transactional operations such as vessel, cargo and permit transactions, through an accredited Electronic Payment Gateway Provider (EPGP), which is the Land Bank of the Philippines. Any port user who possesses an LBP ATM account or any ATM affiliated to Bancnet may use ePayment. Among the benefits that clients may derive from the ePayment include streamlined and convenient payment processing which may be made at the comfort of their respective homes or office, transparency of transactions, guaranteed and real-time application of payment, and reduced overhead cost.
Aside from port clients, PPA internal users stand to benefit also from the system which provides the necessary features needed for their financial operations such as generation of Confirmation Receipts and corresponding Computation Sheets, electronic submission of payment collection reports by the EPGP to PPA, automatic consolidation of payment collection in all ports nationwide, and the generation of periodic ePayment reports such as Daily Abstract of Collection thru ePayment, Inter-Office Collection Report, Monthly Collection Report. — By EA Calo