Customs expects lower than target collection

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Customs (BOC) expects its collection to fall short of its P468 billion target for 2017.

In an interview, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said the BOC may not meet its revenue target for the year despite the improvement in the collection efforts of the bureau.

“They are going to be a little short, I think, for this year. But it’s just a little bit short,” Dominguez told reporters.

According to data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr), the BOC was able to collect P366.7 billion in the first 10 months, 14 percent up from P321.3 billion the same period last year.

In a preliminary report, the BOC collected P46.47 billion in November, reportedly the highest monthly collection recorded in the BOC’s history. This was, however, short of the agency’s P50 billion target for the month.

This means the BOC has so far collected P413.17 billion from January to November, leaving the bureau to collect P54.83 billion to meet its whole year-target.

Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña earlier said the Customs is optimistic it would be able to sustain the growth momentum in its collections and hit its monthly target for December.

For 2018, the customs chief bared the bureau’s target for next year is P627 billion, 34 percent up from the P468 billion goal for this year.

Asked if this was a “reasonable” target, Dominguez said, “Yeah, I think they can do it.”

“First of all, the economy is growing. Secondly, their enforcement is much better, and certainly, I think it’s a good target for them to have. This one, P627 or more than P50 billion a month, is good target,” he added.