BOC January tax take up but short of goal

The Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) collections of import duties and other taxes in January grew by 5.2 percent to P30.9 billion but missed the target for the month by more than 20 percent mainly due to cheap oil.

Citing preliminary figures, the BOC said in a statement that its tax take at the start of the year exceeded the P29.4 billion collected in the same month last year.

However, the country’s second biggest tax-collection agency failed to reach the P39.2-billion goal for January, falling short by 21.1 percent.

The BOC said the total volume and value of imports rose by 19.5 percent and 13.5 percent, respectively, last month.

For non-oil products, the import volume and value jumped 23 percent and 17.2 percent, respectively.  These resulted in an 8.9-percent rise in BOC’s year-on-year collections from non-oil imports to P26.9 billion in January.

Collections from oil, meanwhile, dropped 14.6 percent year-on-year to P3.9 billion.

“The collection effort of the BOC is adversely affected by the 41.2-percent drop in the weighted average price of crude and petroleum products, resulting in an 18.7-percent decline in oil import value despite an 8.4-percent increase in the volume of oil imports,” it said.

“The (BOC) will continue to step up its efforts to meet its monthly revenue targets despite the continuing drop in oil prices,” Customs Commissioner Alberto D. Lina said.

Lina had conceded that the BOC’s P498.7-billion collection target for 2016 earlier set by the Cabinet-level, interagency Development Budget Coordination Committee would be a challenge due to cheaper oil.

Last year, the BOC’s collections reached P366.9 billion, down 0.6 percent year-on-year and 15-percent short of the P436.5-billion target.