The Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Tuesday said it collected P50.072 billion in July, exceeding its P47.674 billion target by five percent.
In a statement, the BOC attributed their positive revenue collection performance to the “improved valuation and volume of importation” along with the bureau’s intensified collective effort on all ports despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Apart from this, it also said it also helped that the government ensured the movement of goods domestically and internationally is unhampered.
Based on the preliminary report from the BOC-Financial Service, ten of the seventeen collection districts exceeded their target for the month, led by Port of Aparri, followed by the Port of Tacloban, Port of Limay, Port of Zamboanga, Port of Cagayan de Oro, Port of Davao, Port of Clark, Port of Cebu, Port of Batangas, and Port of Subic.
Customs said it remains committed to maintaining border security measures against undervaluation, misdeclaration and other forms of technical smuggling and collecting lawful revenues.
In June, BOC also surpassed its P40.74 billion collection goal by 4.42 percent, with the bureau collecting P42.54 billion.
However, BOC’s collections as of end-June this year plummeted by 16.49 percent to P253.04 billion from P303.01 billion in the same period last year due to the steady decline in the volume of imports in the first five months of the year.
It also failed to hit its adjusted target of P254.25 billion for the first semester.
For this year, the BOC’s revised collection goal is P520.4 billion, 28.8 percent down from its initial goal of P731 billion.
Aside from BOC, the collection target of the Bureau of Internal Revenue was also cut by 32.3 percent to P1.744 trillion from the initial goal of P2.576 trillion.
The downward revision on the targets of the state’s main collection agencies was done on the back of government’s expectations of an economic contraction by 2 percent to 3.4 percent and lower imports, as well as a drop in tax base.
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