DOF wants BOC to meet P468-B collection target

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has given his marching orders to newly-appointed Customs commissioner Isidro Lapeña, and that is to focus on meeting the Bureau of Customs’ P468 billion collection target for 2017.

In an interview, Dominguez said he told Lapeña to concentrate on bringing the adequate revenues to the BOC and catch up with the bureau’s goal of hitting its collection target in the remaining four months of the year.

“(Collect) P50.1 billion (a month). That is the marching order. Don’t forget you are a revenue generating agency and that is your target,” Dominguez said.

Based on computation, this means the BOC must still collect P200.4 billion from September to December to achieve its whole year collection goal.

Data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed that the BOC had already collected P245.3 billion in the first seven months, 4.6 percent below the P257.14 billion target for the period.

Aside from meeting the revenue target, Finance Undersecretary Antonette Tionko said Lapeña was also ordered to continue the formulation of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act, and to “maintain housekeeping” inside the bureau.

When asked about Lapeña’s plan to bring in his own men to the agency, Dominguez said, “it’s up to him. He will recommend it to us and I told him generally, I don’t tell him who to hire and what to do.”

Lapeña, the former chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, was placed with the BOC to replace former commissioner Nicanor Faeldon.

Faeldon was embroiled with corruption allegations over the P6.4 billion worth of shabu smuggled into the country last May.

Despite the change in personnel, Dominguez earlier said there would be no changes in the thrust of the Bureau of Customs.

The finance chief remains confident the BOC will continue to be on track with its reform thrust.