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THE
Bureau of Customs (BOC) expects to collect a billion
pesos by year-end, thanks to a measure which reexamines
tax payments levied on oil companies’ crude shipments
for the past three years.
Customs
Commissioner Napoleon L. Morales said Tuesday that the
bureau, the Philippines’ second-largest revenue source,
has already netted more than P800 million as of last
week.
Next to
electronics, oil is the Philippines’ second-largest
imported commodity. As of September this year, the
country received $636 million worth of imported mineral
fuels and lubricants, accounting for a 13-percent share
of all imported products.
“The
P800 million already included those [payments] of Caltex
[Chevron Philippines] and [Pilipinas] Shell and there
will be more to come,” Morales said, failing to disclose
details of the payments made by the two oil companies.
The
bureau was also able to force the Thailand-based PTT
Philippines Corp. and Oillink International Corp. to
remit its additional obligations after its depots were
disallowed from transporting crude.
Besides
remitting P176 million last November, the PTT also
issued a check dated December 14 in favor of the
government worth P177 million, bringing its total
payments to P293 million.
For its
part, Oillink already paid some P115.5 million to the
government.
Earlier,
the BOC imposed the Tariff and Customs Code, allowing
government to hold shipments, helping compel the
companies to settle their unpaid taxes based on the
review made by the BOC’s Post–Entry Audit Group. After
remitting payments, the hold orders have since then been
lifted.
Previously, the BOC issued a letter to Oillink,
demanding P343 million, which covers eight times the
maximum penalty for tax deficiencies and surcharges for
its crude shipments in 2004.
Morales
said that the customs bureau will withdraw the criminal
case that it filed against Oillink.
Since
the bureau has been hard-pressed to meet its P228.2
billion year-end collection target this year, it has
already hinted it may not achieve the goal set by the
inter-agency Development Budget Coordination Committee
as a result of the stronger peso against the dollar.
In
November, the agency exceeded its target of P20.3
billion by about P166 million, according to BOC Deputy
Commissioner Reynaldo V. Umali. (With Jesse Edep,
Researcher) |
