Customs nears P300B milestone

Outgoing Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon: Pleased. INQUIRER PHOTO/JOAN BONDOC

MANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of Customs collected more than P28 billion in revenues in November, bringing to more than P280 billion the agency’s total collections in the past 11 months, according to outgoing Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon.

In a text message to the Inquirer, Biazon on Tuesday said he was “pleased” about the development as he also expressed confidence that “with a little more push, the bureau will reach its internal motivational mark of P300 billion this year.”

Collecting P300 billion is big deal for Biazon who said “it’s going to be a first in the history of the Bureau of Customs.”

The bureau’s January to November collections, however, are still P40 billion short of its 2013 revenue target of P340 billion.

Last week, Biazon said the “jitters caused by swift changes at the agency” had affected collections, resulting in the BOC’s failure to meet its P30.5-billion collection target for October.

Revenue collections for October totaled P28.3 billion, about P2 billion off the BOC target for the month. Still, it was P1.4 billion more than the P26.9 billion it collected in the same period in 2012.

Biazon said, however, that “despite the personnel changes that have occurred of late, we managed to keep our collections on the positive level.”

The Bureau of Customs had undergone a drastic revamp, with Malacañang appointing five new deputy commissioners in September—Agaton Uvero, Primo Aguas, Ma. Edita Tan, Myrna Chua and former Armed Forces chief Jessie Dellosa.

Under the Department of Finance-initiated Customs Reform Project, 37 customs officials, including 17 district collectors, were moved from their posts to the newly created Customs Policy Research Office at the DOF head office.

Biazon has admitted the agency would most likely miss its annual collection target, citing the slowdown of imports, globalization and trade liberalization, as well as the “continuing corruption” in the bureau, among other factors.

Meanwhile, the agency’s five biggest collection districts—Manila International Container Port, the ports of Manila, Batangas and Limay, Bataan, and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia)—are reported to have collected P218.12 billion during the first 10 months of the year.

A report from the Statistical Analysis Division, however, said the combined collections were still nearly P23 billion short of the agency’s P241.1-billion goal for the January-October period.