Customs hikes take but misses target

The Bureau of Customs (BOC). FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of Customs (BOC) collected a total of P29.3 billion in revenue in March, which the agency noted was P7.5 billion more than its collection in the same period last year.

However, the bureau did not say that last month, it incurred a collection deficit of P3.98 billion for its failure to meet its monthly collection target of P33.28 billion, bringing to P8.27 billion the agency’s total deficit in the first quarter of 2014.

In a statement, the BOC on Monday attributed the “34-percent year-on-year hike” in March revenue to the “increase in the volume of imported goods, as well as the ongoing systemic and process reforms, particularly in valuation,” in the bureau.

Citing a report by the Department of Finance’s bureau of the treasury, it said the “revenues generated by the BOC in March were derived mainly from cash collections, which refer to duties, taxes and fees collected from goods that entered the country through the customs ports nationwide.”

The BOC’s revenue goal for the first three months of the year was P94.76 billion.

The agency’s revenue goals for January and February were P31.73 billion and P30.18 billion, respectively. Its actual collections for these periods amounted to P29.78 billion and P27.41 billion.

Instead, the bureau pointed out that “for the first quarter of 2014, total collections by the BOC reached P86.5 billion, up 26 percent from the same period last year.”