Customs take up 11%

Bureau of Customs (BOC) building. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The duties collected by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) from the country’s sea and air ports rose by over a tenth in August despite the congestion at the ports in the city of Manila.

The Customs bureau Friday reported that its revenues last month amounted to P29.06 billion, up 11 percent from the P26.09 billion collected in the same month last year.

The agency said the increase was a welcome development as August was considered to be “ghost month,” or a slow period in global trade.

In August, actual cash collection grew by 13.4 percent, the BOC said. For the January-August period, cash collection climbed 17.4 percent.

The biggest collections last August were from the Manila International Container Port (P8 billion), Port of Batangas (P7.2 billion), Port of Manila (P4.5 billion), Limay port (P3.2 billion), and Ninoy Aquino International Airport (P2.2 billion).

The bureau noted that the revenue from the Batangas port went up by 42 percent year-on-year. The BOC also exceeded its P6.1-billion target for the month “as more importers opted to divert their shipments there to avoid congestion in the Manila ports.”

The other ports that generated significant revenue were those in Aparri, Davao, Iloilo and Subic, the BOC said.

In the eight months to August, total Customs collections hit P232.92 billion—17 percent more than the P199.17 billion collected during the same period last year.

From January-August, the largest revenues were contributed by the Manila International Container Port (P63 billion), Port of Batangas (P50.2 billion), Port of Manila (P40.9 billion), Limay port (P26.6 billion), and Ninoy Aquino International Airport (P18.3 billion).

Charo Logarto-Lagamon, who heads the BOC’s public information and assistance division, said the higher collections seen at the end August indicated that, despite the challenges now facing the agency, the improved policies, processes and reforms put in place by Customs Commissioner John P. Sevilla proved to be a “step in the right direction” as well as an “impetus for sustainable revenue collection.”

In a telephone interview, she said that the BOC remains in fighting form, expecting to hit its P401-billion collection target for 2014.