Customs recovers P6B bonds

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) said yesterday that it has recovered for the government a record P6.2 billion in unliquidated bond payments due from more than a hundred delinquent surety firms since the launching of a no-nonsense collection drive last May or four months ago.

Lawyer Emma Rosqueta, deputy commissioner for the Revenue Collection Monitoring Group (RCMG), told The STAR that her unit has since reduced the original outstanding collection from a staggering P10 billion plus to just P3.8 billion as of Sept. 15.

She vowed that there would be no let up in the drive to mop up the remaining, and still hefty, delinquent amounts.

"We are still in hot pursuit of the remaining accounts. We assure you that there will be no let up in exhausting all remedies within our powers to collect them," Rosqueta vowed.

The BOC is currently struggling to hit its collection target of P91 billion this year in the face of slowed import activities.— Jerry Botial