Customs posts highest take in September

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) collected P32.87 billion in September, said to be the agency’s highest monthly take, although the figure was still below the goal set for the period.

In a statement on Thursday, the Customs bureau attributed its “highest ever single month collection” to “continuous improvements in valuation and an increase in the volume of imported goods.”

Last month’s haul was 27.2-percent higher than the P25.84 billion collected in September last year. However, the BOC failed to hit its target of P34.56 billion for September 2014.

From January to September, the BOC collected a total of P265.79 billion—18 percent higher than the P225.01 billion recorded in the first nine months of 2013.

Customs officials noted that, last September, import volumes rose 15.7 percent alongside improved valuation of products that offset lower petroleum prices. Imported goods account for almost three-fourths of customs revenues.

“Improvements in the bureau’s system for the valuation of goods, coupled with enhanced enforcement and apprehension efforts, yielded an 18.23-percent hike in the customs value for imported products and a 19-percent increase in the duties and taxes collected, offsetting a slight decrease in the average tariff rate” during the nine-month period, the Customs bureau said. Also, “the P0.98 depreciation of the peso versus the US dollar helped defray the decline in the price of petroleum products, which accounted for about 27 percent of total imports last month.”

It said that every P1 movement in the exchange rate would have an estimated “P2.7-billion impact on the bureau’s revenue collection.”

The agency added that the entry of more imported vehicles helped ramp up last month’s collections.

This month, the Bureau of Customs has a revenue goal of P36.81 billion.  With a report from Jerry E. Esplanada