Customs exceeds 2018 collection goal

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Friday said it already breached its 2018 collections goal of P584.9 billion as a number of ports surpassed their respective targets even before the year ended.

“Based on preliminary data, we have already exceeded our target and counting,” BOC spokesperson Dino Austria said in a text message.

But Austria did not give a figure as he said the country’s second-largest revenue agency was still collating data from the 17 ports.

As of end-November, the BOC’s collections amounted P538.5 billion, up 30 percent year-on-year, the latest preliminary Bureau of the Treasury data released this week showed.

Based on earlier statements, the BOC said the ports of Iloilo, Davao, Zamboanga, Cebu, Tacloban and Subic hit their 2018 collection targets ahead of schedule.

This was even as the monthly take from import duties and other taxes fell below target after Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo B. Guerrero assumed office late October.

In a Dec. 11 memorandum, Guerrero asked the heads of the country’s 17 ports to submit a collection deficit recovery plan “with concrete and deliverable measures, to help ensure that the bureau will meet the assigned target for 2018.”

Guerrero lamented “low collection performance for the months of October and November.”

Treasury data showed that the BOC’s tax take in October actually rose 30 percent year-on-year to P56 billion, but the target for the month was not indicated.

However, the growth in the BOC’s collections slowed to 3 percent last November such that the haul was a lower P47.9 billion compared with the previous month, the latest Treasury data showed.

Also on Dec. 11, Guerrero required the submission of a daily collections report showing the actual take against the daily target from all of the district collectors.

This was aimed at “[effectively] monitoring with the end-goal of hitting the December 2018 target” of P53.7 billion, Guerrero explained.

Guerrero also called for a collectors’ conference last Dec. 20 at the Manila International Container Port, with the respective action plans to meet their December collection targets as well as the recovery plan to fill the gap for the November shortfall among the agenda. —BEN O. DE VERA