Customs bureau takes in P92B in Q1

The Bureau of Customs has yet to release its revenue collection figures for April and May, but first-quarter reports indicate collections of P92 billion with ports in the National Capital Region (NCR) topping collections.

In a report, a copy of which was furnished the Inquirer, the Department of Finance-attached agency said the NCR cluster composed of the Manila International Container Port (MICP), Port of Manila (POM) and Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) collected P26.17 billion, P15.16 billion and P7.87 billion, respectively, for a total of P49.21 billion from January to March.

The three-month aggregate was P4.35 billion more than the three ports’collections during the same period last year but it was P7.7 billion less than the NCR cluster’s target of P56.9 billion for the period this year.

After the NCR, the Luzon cluster of ports placed second with revenues of P18.93 billion, followed by Mindanao and Visayas ports with collections of P4.55 billion and P4.05 billion, respectively.

Poorest performers

The BOC report also showed that Surigao City, Aparri in Cagayan and Zamboanga City were the poorest-performing ports in the first quarter with revenues of P500,000, P1.2 million and P12.4 million, respectively.

The other ports and their respective collections were as follows: Batangas City, P19.05 billion; Limay in Bataan, P5.32 billion; Subic Freeport in Zambales, P3.85 billion; Cebu City, P3.5 billion; Davao City, P2.53 billion; Cagayan de Oro City, P2 billion; Iloilo City, P512.4 million; San Fernando, La Union, P431.9 million; Clark International Airport in Pampanga, P226.6 million; Tacloban City, P35.8 million; and Legaspi City, P21.6 million.

Of the P92-billion first-quarter revenue, P87.3 billion came from cash collections while P4.9 billion represented non-cash collections, or from imports of government agencies paid with credits to the bureau’s account.

For the entire year, customs has a collection target of P436.6 billion. Customs Commissioner Alberto Lina said that with the prevailing “lean season” for imports, they were “not expecting a huge jump in revenue during the second quarter.”

Earlier, he said the amount of import duties and taxes collected by the BOC was likely to grow by at least 10 percent in April, with a higher take from non-oil products.

Collections from non-oil products were “expected to lead the growth,” he said, adding that it “cannot bank on oil due to declining global oil prices.”