Customs’ tax take exceeds goal by 3%

The Bureau of Customs exceeded its collection target in March, reversing its below-target take in the previous month, data released yesterday showed.

As the bureau surpassed collection targets in January and March, Customs Commissioner Nicanor E. Faeldon expressed confidence that the agency’s full-year goal of P468 billion was “achievable.”

“With the strong implementation of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act and our intensified operations against smuggling, I am positive that we will be able to achieve, or even exceed our 2017 revenue goal,” Faeldon said.

In March alone, the bureau’s collections of import duties and other taxes reached P37.7 billion, exceeding the P36.6-billion target by 3 percent. The month’s take was also up 16 percent from P32.4 billion a year ago.

“The BOC’s largest revenue collecting ports generated billions of duties and taxes. Of the 17 collection districts, nine exceeded their March collection targets,” said the country’s second biggest tax-collection agency.
The BOC said the Manila International Container Port’s P11.7-billion collection last month was 3.7-percent higher than the P11.3-billion target; Batangas’ P8.5 billion, 3.7 percent higher than the P8.2-billion target; Cagayan de Oro’s P1.3 billion, 44 percent higher than the P879.3-million target; Cebu’s P1.7 billion, 4.8 percent higher than the P1.6-billion target; Clark’s P131 million, 5.4 percent higher than the P124.6-million target; Davao’s P1.3 billion, 24.1 percent higher than the P1.1-billion target; Iloilo’s P219 million, 8.7 percent higher than the P201-million target; Legaspi’s P77 million, 276.1 percent higher than the P20.5-million target; San Fernando’s P244 million, 30.2 percent higher than the P187.5-million target, and Zamboanga’s P32 million, 128 percent higher than the P14-million target.

The P35.7 billion that the BOC collected in January also surpassed its P35.5-billion goal for the month.

However, collections in February were below-target, as the P30.8-billion tax take fell short of the programmed P33.4 billion, BOC data on its website showed.

In 2016, the total amount of import duties and other taxes collected by the BOC rose 8 percent year-on-year to P396.4 billion although it fell short of the agency’s P409-billion target.