Immigration registers biggest revenue haul yet

Bureau of Immigration building. Photo from Bureau of Immmigration website

MANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of Immigration (BI) yesterday announced it has earned almost P3 billion in revenue in 2013, the biggest in its history.

Immigration Commissioner Siegfred Mison said the bureau’s total income last year reached P2,985,641,950, an 8.9-percent leap from its total collection of P2.74 billion in 2012 and its biggest since its creation in 1940.

Mison attributed the record collection of immigration tax and nontax fees to the improved and expedited services to foreigners at the bureau’s main office in Manila and its satellite offices across the country.

Of the P3 billion, P72 million came from tax collections; P2.8 billion from nontax charges, which included services, fines and penalties; and P130 million from alien certificate of registration identity card (ACR I-Card) fees.

As a rule, the bureau’s income goes to the National Treasury and is reported to the Department of Budget and Management.

Mison on Sunday revealed the agency received the highest percentage increase in budget appropriations for this year.

The bureau, among the 10 attached agencies of the Department of Justice, has a budget of P650 million under the 2014 General Appropriations Act.

The agency’s budget for this year, which reflects a 14.48 percent increase from last year’s P568 million, will be allotted to upgrade the bureau’s border control system at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, as well as other airports and seaports.

Mison also said the bureau is set to purchase P70 million worth of computers and biometric machines under its modernization and automation program as part of his aim to professionalize its personnel and eradicate graft and corruption in the agency.—Jocelyn R. Uy