Cheaper oil brings down Customs take

MANILA, Philippines–Duties and taxes collected by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) slid year on year last January mainly due to cheaper oil, Commissioner John Phillip P. Sevilla said on Monday.

Without disclosing actual figures, Sevilla said last month’s collections were “lower” than the take in January last year.

BOC data showed that it collected P29.772 billion during the first month of 2014, higher by 21.3 percent than the P24.540 billion collected in January 2013.

The actual January 2014 collections, however, were lower by 4.9 percent than the goal for that month of P31.307 billion.

Sevilla said that in January this year, lower global oil prices pulled down collections, alongside the three-day holiday due to the visit of Pope Francis, during which port operations in Manila were shut down.

The BOC chief had said that the agency stood to lose P40 billion in collections this year as oil prices had been halved to about $50 a barrel.

Taxes and duties from oil products account for over a fifth of the BOC’s annual collections.

The country imports and consumes an average of 120 million barrels of oil a year.

While the BOC has yet to release the actual full-year collections figure for 2014, Sevilla said it likely settled at about P370 billion, below the goal of P408.1 billion.

As for the 2015 target, Sevilla conceded as early as December last year that collecting P456.5 billion this year would be “impractical and unrealistic” due to cheaper oil.

Department of Budget and Management data showed that of the BOC’s 2015 collections goal, the bulk or P347.4 billion, should come from the 12-percent value added tax or VAT slapped on imported goods.

Import duties and taxes, meanwhile, should contribute P75.8 billion, while other collections mainly from excise taxes should amount P33.3 billion.