BOC beats 5-mo collection target

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) again exceeded its collection goal in May as the majority of the country’s ports hit their respective targets amid improving economic prospects.

In a statement on Wednesday, the country’s second-biggest tax-collection agency said the import duties and other taxes it generated last month amounted to P49.3 billion, surpassing its P46.3-billion goal by 6.6 percent.

Slump due to lockdown

The BOC’s tax take in May was also higher than the P30.8 billion collected a year ago. To recall, the government’s tax revenue dropped last year due to the most stringent COVID-19 lockdown in the region imposed from mid-March to May 2020, which shut down 75 percent of the economy.

The BOC said its May collections included P50.2 million from the tax expenditure fund covering the government’s importation plus P86.3 million from post-clearance audits.

For the first five months, BOC collections hit P249.8 billion, up from P210.5 billion in the same period last year. It also exceeded the five-month collection goal of P244.7 billion.

The BOC said 12 of its 17 collection districts had above-target revenues in May, namely: Manila International Container Port, Port of Manila as well as the Ports of Batangas, Cagayan de Oro, Clark, Davao, Iloilo, Legaspi, San Fernando, Subic, Surigao and Tacloban.

The BOC attributed its higher collections to “the improved valuation and volume of importations, and the intensified collective efforts of all the ports to prevent revenue leakage.” Rising oil prices helped

The normalization of global oil prices amid economic recovery worldwide has helped in raising collection from imported fuel.

Last month, the Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee projected goods imports to grow by 12 percent this year—faster than the previous estimate of 8 percent—on the back of expectations of a rebound in domestic demand as the economy was hoped to revert to a 6- to 7-percent growth path this year after last year’s pandemic-induced recession. The BOC had been tasked to collect P616.7 billion in revenue in 2021, a target which Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero told the Inquirer in January was attainable.