Customs bureau fails to hit revenue target again

AFP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—For the fourth consecutive month this year, the Bureau of Customs failed to meet its revenue goal, with April collections coming up to a little over P30.5 billion, about P5.26 billion short of its P35.79-billion target for the 19-day trading period, according to a BOC report.

Last month’s revenues brought to P117 billion the BOC’s collections from January to April, about P13.54 billion short of its P130.57-billion goal for the period, said the bureau’s “preliminary” revenue collection report, a copy of which was furnished the Inquirer by a top Customs official

Faced with the growing revenue deficit, some BOC oldtimers say it was unlikely the agency would meet its annual collection target of P408.1 billion.

Still, the April revenues were P3.31 billion more than the bureau’s collection during the same period in 2013, which totaled P27.22 billion.

The BOC registered revenues of P29.77 billion, P27.41 billion and P29.31 billion in January, February and March this year, respectively. The collection targets for these months were P31.3 billion, P30.18 billion and P33.28 billion.

Lean months

During the first three months of 2013, the bureau’s revenues totaled P24.54 billion, P22.47 billion and P21.8 billion, respectively.

“The first quarter of the year is traditionally a lean season for imports. The period comes immediately after the high demand of the Christmas season and the trading slowdown during the Chinese New Year,” said another customs official.

But he said that “during the succeeding months, the bureau bounces back with higher revenue collections”.

In the same report, the BOC said that last month, only four of the agency’s 17 collection districts nationwide registered revenue surpluses. They were the Subic Freeport in Zambales with collections of P1.44 billion, about P691.8 million more than its target of P752.1 million; Limay port in Bataan, P3.94 billion, about P380.2 million more than its goal of P3.56 billion; Iloilo, P120.4 million, about P46.3 million more than the targeted P74.1 million; and Aparri port in Cagayan, P39.7 million, about P11.8 million more than its goal of P28 million.

During the first four months of the year, only seven of the 17 ports met their revenue targets: Batangas, with goal and actual collections of P24.17 billion and P24.48 billion, respectively; Subic Freeport, P2.78 billion and P5.02 billion; Cebu, P4.07 billion and P4.28 billion; Davao, P2.50 billion and P2.62 billion; Cagayan de Oro, P2.57 billion and P2.65 billion; Iloilo, P275 million and P359.7 million; and Aparri, P188.4 million and P103.7 million.

The following ports registered collection deficits during the same period: Port of Manila, P6.9 billion; Manila International Container Port, P6.08 billion; Ninoy Aquino International Airport, P2.59 billion; Clark International Airport, P273.5 million; Limay, P234.2 million; Tacloban, P67.5 million; San Fernando, La Union, P58 million; Legaspi, P56.2 million; Surigao, P6.7 million; and Zamboanga, P5.7 million.