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WITH
collections going way below target, the Bureau of
Customs will reshuffle all its port district collectors.
Although the shuffle was announced only on Monday—a day
after the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), its twin in
the revenue sector, changed assignments of 13 key
officers—the recommendation for a Customs revamp was
submitted to the Department of Finance much earlier, and
the implementation may start as early as next month.
BOC
Commissioner Napoleon L. Morales said Monday the
reshuffle plan was submitted to the selection board of
the Department of Finance as early as May, but it could
not be implemented due to the election ban.
The
recommendation is now being assessed by Finance
Undersecretary Gaudencio Mendoza, he said.
“We have
to do this as part of the measures to improve our
revenue generation. We are employing enhancement and
alternative measures to eliminate the deficit, but we
think a reorganization will help our cause,” he told
reporters.
Morales
admitted, however, that collections were affected by
various factors including the dollar exchange rate
against the peso, downtrend in import volume, and
unrealized assumptions of other cargo volumes.
The
district port collectors and other Customs officers are
most likely to be affected by the revamp, but there will
be “fairness in assessment of performances and
transparency in the process,” Morales said.
For the
first half of the year, BOC posted a P92.2-billion
collection, more than 12 percent lower than the
P105.2-billion target for the period.
Compared
with last year’s collection, deputy commissioner
Reynaldo Umali earlier said the revenue collection was
P2.4 billion lower compared to January-June 2006.
Out of
the 15 ports, only four surpassed their respective
targets: the ports of Cebu, Legazpi, Cagayan de Oro and
the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
“The
realization of assumption of our target is very
important. Our collection will definitely be affected
since we collect in dollars and remit to government in
pesos,” Umali said.
As a
rule of thumb, for every P1 appreciation of the local
currency against the dollar, it has an impact of P2.2
billion in revenue for the BOC, Umali explained.
“We have
to take into consideration, for instance, reduction in
oil prices in world market in the past months which
naturally resulted in lower cost of transaction,” he
said.
Morales
said they expect about P10 billion from additional taxes
and duties from oil companies through its Post Entry
Audit Group, which is now reviewing all oil, chemical
and liquefied gas imports in the last three years.
BOC had
already shuffled its collectors last year, since most of
its main collection points were off target in 2006.
However, the agency ended up surpassing its target as
the Office of the Commissioner, which also acts as a
collecting agent for other accounts, went after the
importing government agencies such as the National Food
Authority to plug the deficit.
In last
year’s reshuffle,
Port of
Batangas
district collector Adelina Molina replaced Manila
International Container Port (MICP) district collector
Carlos So, who was transferred to the Ninoy Aquino
International Airport.
Naia
district collector Ricardo Belmonte replaced Port of
Cebu district collector Lourdes Mangaoang, who was then
transferred to Port of Iloilo.
Naia
deputy collector Grace Caringal replaced Molina in
Batangas.
Port of
Subic
district collector Andres Salvacion replaced
Port of
Cagayan de Oro
district collector Roberto Sacramento and MICP deputy
collector Tita Zamoranos replaced Salvacion in Subic.
Both the
Bureau of Internal Revenue and the BOC, the government’s
top two revenue-generating agencies, have mapped out
their own separate actions plans to meet the Arroyo
government’s 2007 revenue targets of P730 billion and
P228 billion, respectively.
President Arroyo has ordered finance officials to attain
the government’s P63-billion budget deficit goal and the
P1.1-trillion revenue target for 2007. |
