Customs surpasses October target

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) again surpassed its monthly collection target in October due mainly to non-cash revenues from the rice importation requirements of the National Food Authority (NFA) during the period, latest data from the agency showed.

The BOC collected P24.492 billion last month or P758 million or 3.2 percent more than its target, of P23.734-billion preliminary data from the agency showed. This was also more than the P23.996 billion collected in September.

The amount brings the BOC’s cumulative total for the first 10 months of the year to P222.125 billion or P12.465 billion ahead of its P209.660-billion target for January to Oct. 31.

Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales has yet to announce the final collection figures for the month.

BOC deputy commissioner Reynaldo Umali attributed the higher-than-expected collection figures to non-cash revenues.

He said that the bureau exceeded its P600-million collection goal from the Tax Expenditure Fund as it generated P3 billion in revenues for the month.

The so-called TEF is a subsidy released by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to GOCCs and state-run companies mainly to settle customs duties and other taxes arising from the importation of goods.

Cash revenues of the BOC come from tariffs or duties paid by importers to the agency for goods entering the country while non-cash items come from the TEF of government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) and state-run agencies.

The BOC reported that while a majority of the 17 offices failed to meet their respective collection targets, the agency still managed to exceed its assigned target. Only seven offices surpassed the target while 10 others performed below target.

The seven districts that overperformed were the Port of San Fernando which collected P136 million compared to its target of P97 million; Legaspi which collected P5.9 million compared to its target of P3.2 million; Iloilo which collected P27 million compared to its target of P24 million; Cebu which collected P472 million compared to its target of P450 million; Cagayan de Oro which collected P350 million compared to its target of P318 million; Davao which collected P188 million compared to P165 million; and Clark which collected P63 million compared to target of P60 million.

Cebu District Collector Ricardo Belmonte said their collection last month was P25.645 million more than the set target or 5.7 percent higher.

The districts that underperfomed were the major district offices namely the Port of Manila which collected P3.711 billion compared to its target of P4.12 billion; the Manila International Container Port which collected P5.975 billion compared to its target of P6 billion; the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) which collected P1.650 billion compared to its target of P1.951 billion; and Batangas which collected P4.795 billion compared to its target of P5.120 bllion.

The smaller port of Tacloban was PP9.5 million short of its target, Surigao was P4.2 million short of target; Zamboanga was P4.4 million short of target, Subic was P152 million short of target and Limay was P127 million short of target.

The Office of the Commissioner, which is considered a separate collection district, fell short of its collection target. It did not post any collection for the month but its TEFs from government importations exceeded its P666 million goal significantly by posting P3.22 billion in collections.

TEFs are non-cash payments from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and are settled through statement of release order (SARO).

The BOC, the government’s second largest revenue agency, has been meeting its collection targets for the past six months due mainly to the weakening of the peso against the dollar and higher volume of oil imports.

Estimates from the agency showed that every one peso depreciation against the dollar translates to P2.5 billion in revenues.

For 2008, the agency is tasked to collect P254 billion.