BOC exceeds end-February collection goal

MANILA, Phililppines — The Bureau of Customs (BOC) slightly exceeded its collection goal for the first two months, but its chief Rey Leonardo B. Guerrero warned underperforming district collectors that they will be fired if their first-quarter take falls short.

Spokesperson Erastus Sandino B. Austria told the Inquirer Thursday that the BOC’s initial total accrued revenue during the January to February period amounted P92.79 billion, 0.5 percent higher than the P92.33 billion target.

Actual BOC collections from January to February last year reached P84.5 billion in import duties and other taxes.

For the first quarter, the country’s ports were tasked to collect P144.34 billion, Austria said, citing figures from the BOC’s financial service.

Despite the above-target tax take so far, Guerrero in a Feb. 28 memorandum told all district and sub-port collectors that the “one-strike policy” implemented by his predecessor Isidro S. Lapeña will be back.

The BOC under Lapeña surpassed monthly revenue goals from February to September last year, as the former commissioner had fired the district collectors whose ports’ revenues were below their respective goals for the month.

“Based on our collection records, some of you were not able to meet your monthly collection targets for the months of January and February,” Guerrero said.

“The existing one-strike policy has been relaxed to give you the chance to manage your strategies and re-evaluate your policy directions and operational processes,” the BOC chief noted.

But “in the event that you will continue to fail meeting either your monthly or quarterly targets, the one-strike policy will be strictly implemented,” he said.

In an earlier memorandum he issued also last month, Guerrero ordered all collection districts to closely monitor importation values, ensure correct valuation of goods, impose the appropriate excise taxes on excisable articles under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act, and validate free trade agreement (FTA) forms to ensure that these were not being used to defraud the country’s second largest revenue agency amid already low, if not zero, duty rates.  /muf