THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) is bracing for its seventh-straight month of collection shortfall in October due to weaker revenues of the Port of Manila and several other major ports, according to preliminary figures from the agency.
Data obtained from the BOC showed that the government’s second-largest revenue earner collected about P20.77 billion as of October 27, with two more days remaining for the month. For the month, the agency has targeted P30.48 billion, the biggest collection goal of the agency in history.
Customs Commissioner Rozzano Rufino “Ruffy” Biazon, meanwhile, said the Department of Finance (DOF) has set the Bureau of Customs’s target collection next year at P365 billion. “That’s P1 billion a day,” he told reporters.
Biazon admitted the BOC has encountered difficulties in achieving this year’s target which the DOF reduced from P320 billion to P278 billion. But the latter amount is “more realistic,” he said.
For the period, so far, the BOC’s shortfall collection amounts to about P10.61 billion, but the agency can collect as much as P2 billion a day as many shippers normally pay their taxes during the latter part of the month. Biazon admits that collection for the two remaining days for October could only narrow the BOC’s shortfall but it will not be enough to hit its goal.
“The good thing about it [BOC’s October collection] is that it’s an improvement from last year,” Biazon said, adding that he expects to exceed last year’s collection as the final figures arrive this week.
For the same period last year, the BOC collected P22.57 billion, but some P4.58 billion of which came from tax- expenditure fund (TEF), or the paper revenues from the importation of the government agencies and only P17.99 billion came from cash collections.
Of the P20.77-billion collection for the current month, some P1.09 billion accounts for TEF and P18.77 billion for cash, or those actual revenues that came from the agency’s ports of collection.
According to the BOC figures, all of the agency’s ports of collections have failed to collect its respective goals, led by the Port of Manila with its P2.43-billion shortfall, or 40 percent of its target.
Batangas Port, where the country’s largest oil refineries are located, has a deficit collection of P1.49 billion, or 28 percent of its goal, while Manila International Container Port has a shortfall of P1.4 billion, or 20 percent of its target.
Ninoy Aquino International Airport has a narrower shortfall of P341 million, or about 18 percent of its target, while Port of Limay, another oil port, has a deficit of P685 million, or 26 percent of its goal.
The five ports of collections account for 85 percent of all BOC’s collection.
For the 10-month period, the BOC’s shortfall collections amount to P45.07 billion after it collected P215.04 billion as against its target of P260.11 billion.
Biazon, who was in Cebu to meet with local exporters and members of the Rotary Club, said he hopes that in setting annual targets, the DOF takes into consideration other factors that are beyond the control of the bureau.
He noted that in Malaysia, they do not have targets but, instead, have forecasts of their previous performance, investments and other economic factors.
While he clarified that he does not mean that they should do the exact same thing, he said coming up with the targets should depend on a process that is scientific and realistic.
Biazon said he understands that collection targets are a form of “pressure” for bureaus to perform well.
Though the end of the year is approaching, Biazon said the reduction of the target will still have an impact, with October and November being the peak months.
(With PNA report)
