Customs bureau fails to meet lowered collection target in August

This year’s revenue target was revised anew, but the Bureau of Customs (BOC) still posted a deficit.

The BOC, the government’s second biggest revenue-generating agency, missed the mark for August collections, with a revenue shortfall of R1.7 billion after it collected R32.7 billion as against its revised target of R34.3 billion.

An initial collection report, a copy of which was obtained by Manila Bulletin, showed that BOC’s deficit was R8.2 billion if its original revenue goal was not lowered from R40.9 billion.

The actual data said the Port of Manila registered the highest deficit among the BOC ports for its collections of R5.2 billion, which way below its revenue goal of R7.2 billion.

POM’s deviation in August was billion or R27.7 percent.

Other Metro Manila ports — Ninoy Aquino International Airport and Manila International Container Port — were not able to meet their respective targets. R2

NAIA fell short to reach its R3.6-billion goal after it collected R2.8 billion, short by R870.2 million while MICP had a deficit of R1.6 billion for its collections of R10.2 billion vis-à-vis R11.8-billion target.

The Port of Batangas posted a collection shortfall of R1.3 billion, with its actual revenues amounting to R7.4 billion. Limay Port was short of R1.2 billion based on its target of R2.9 billion.

Last month’s deficit has further widened BOC’s overall revenue gap to R68.5 billion as the total collections reached R253.7 billion during the first eight months of the year, way below its R322.2-billion goal.

All of these were cash collections from the ports and included the tax expenditure fund (TEF), or the paper revenues that amounted to R203.3 million from the importation of the government agencies.

The BOC referred to August as "ghost" month and businesses are believed to be traditionally slow.

In a collection report, the Department of Finance-attached agency disclosed that the other ports that incurred shortfalls during the period were as follow: San Fernando, R99.1 million; Cebu, R190.8 million; Tacloban, R19.2 million; Surigao, R1.1 million; Cagayan De Oro, R232.2 million; Zamboanga, R7.6 million; Davao, R108.9 million, and Aparri, R44.4 million.

Four ports, on the other hand, were able to exceed their respective targets last month. These were Legazpi, Iloilo, Subic, and Clark.

BOC announced that the Development Budget and Coordination Committee (DBCC) has lowered its target for the year from R498.7 billion to R409 billion, with R402.5 billion as cash component.

“The target recalculation comes after continuous decline in oil prices and level of imports in the recent months,” a statement from BOC said.

The agency said the new target is 17.6 percent lower than the original cash collection target of R488.7 billion.

“The recomputed cash collection target remains higher by 12.6 percent compared to the 2015 actual cash collection of R357.4 billion,” it said.