Faeldon: Customs may miss P406-billion revenue target this year

MANILA, Philippines -- The Bureau of Customs might have difficulties in reaching its P406-billion revenue target for 2016, Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faledon said on Monday.

 

Faeldon explained that the BOC cannot sacrifice its other mandates of border security and trade facilitation to pursue revenue targets.

 

“In the past 30 years -- 20 years -- there is only one year that the bureau has hit the target. Okay? We should understand that,” he said in a press briefing in Malacañang.

 

 “So, this year, is not an ordinary year. It’s a normal year for the BOC, meaning it’s behind the target. Now, in the first semester, two quarters, it’s how many percent below the target and then we are picking up in this month. So, hoping we can recover up to December,” he said.

 

“But if that’s the direction of the correction, we are improving in this month but in July it’s very low, as low as the other months of the year,” he said.

 

Bribery charges

 

Meanwhile, Faeldon said, the BOC has investigated the case of a member of the Customs police for allegedly getting payoffs from certain individuals who have dealings with the agency.

 

“We have also have a strong case against one of our employees, the name is Customs Police Captain Arnel Baylosis. Four individuals who have direct transactions with him testified through affidavit that previously -- Since 2012, they have been giving bribe money,” he said.

 

He said the bribe, called 'tara' among Customs insiders, ranged from P100 million to P220 million a month. He said that his office has referred the Baylosis case to the Department of Justice for investigation.

 

“That’s so far as our effort to curb corruption in the bureau is concerned. We now have a very strong case against this individual,” he said.

The Bureau of Customs early this month created a committee tasked with making sure that the agency will meet its target revenue of P498 billion in collections for this year. 

 

“We will work hard to at least reach the target but it’s really one --- just one of the mandates of the bureau,” he said.  “I think it’s doable. It depends on our ability to address the other issues, that we improve the revenue collection,” Faeldon said.

 

“You know, when you talk about BOC, some people really try to rate the performance of the BOC on the revenue collection. We can bring in a lot of commodities and reach the target but we might sacrifice our mandate of border security,” he said.

 

Faeldon issued Customs Personnel Order (CPO) No. D-23-2016, creating the Committee on Revenue Enhancement (CORE), on August 2.

 

The committee is expected to help the agency bolster its revenue collection efforts. He noted that the BOC failed to attain its annual targets for revenue collection in the past years. In 2015, it posted a total collection of only P367.534 billion – 15.8 percent short of the P436.592-billion target.

 

The committee has been tasked with scrutinizing the daily performance of 17 Customs collection districts, identify loopholes in collections and suggest solutions for them, study and formulate strategies to maximize revenue collection, and guide assessment officials on how to maximize collection efforts and surpass targets.

 

BOC, which oversees the collection of Customs revenues from air and sea ports, is the second-largest revenue-collecting agency in the country.

Faeldon said the buraue has accomplished much during the first 50 days of the Duterte administration. Among those are the confiscation of 11 packs of suspected shabu from a passenger from Hongkong last July 20, the discovery of various high-caliber firearms in a Balikbayan box last July 19, and the implementation of various alert orders.

 

“That’s why we have these balikbayan boxes inspected, we have controlled the delivery of these 10 high-powered firearms to make sure that we will not just bring in commodities here so that we can hit the target at the same time we [do not] sacrifice one of our mandates, that is border security,” he said.

 

“So if you are going to rate the Bureau of Customs based on the tariff or the revenue collection performance alone, then you will be missing two mandates that’s border security and trade facilitation,” he said.

 

Faeldon has also ordered the installation of CCTV systems at the main Customs office in Manila, and in major ports in the country.