BOC tax take up but still below goal

The import duties and other taxes collected by the Bureau of Customs in September increased from month-ago and year-ago levels but they remained below target.

Citing the latest report of its financial service unit, the BOC said in a statement Wednesday that collections last month reached P33.951 billion, up from P33.002 billion in August and higher than the P32.65-billion tax take in the same month last year.

The actual take, however, was lower than the P35.79-billion target set for the said month.

At the end of the first nine months, the BOC’s collections reached P288.1 billion, higher than the P268.2 billion collected as of the end of September last year.

“The monthly revenue being collected has been increasing since the administration of Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon posted a P30.278 billion in revenue collection for July,” the BOC said in the statement.

The actual take in July was 6 percent higher year-on-year but was also lower than collection target for the month of P36.065 billion.

The BOC’s collection in August amounted P32.653 billion, up 8 percent year-on-year, but below the P34.308-billion target.

In September, only six of the 17 collection districts surpassed their respective collection goals: Batangas’ P8.529 billion exceeded its P8.069-billion target; Cebu, P1.759 billion (against P1.507-billion target); Davao, P1.052 billion (against P987.5-million target); Clark’s P225.2 million exceeded its P118-million target; Iloilo, P211.8 million (against P182.6-million target), and Zamboanga, P19.5 million (against P16.3-million target).

Also, “the Manila International Container Terminal has posted a collection of P10.583 billion based on initial reports, and is nearing its P10.601-billion target,” the BOC said.

While Faeldon welcomed the three straight months of year-on-year growth in collections, he pointed out that “apart from revenue collection, the BOC’s mandates include trade facilitation and border security.”

“It depends on our ability to address other issues that we can improve the revenue collection,” the Customs chief said.

He pointed out that “the eradication of corruption—which his leadership is currently working on—will help the BOC yield higher revenue collection.”