The Philippine Bureau of Customs (BOC) will be hard pressed to reach its collection target of P347 billion for the year even if the figure has already been reduced from the original goal of P365.1 billion, according to Customs commissioner Rozzano Rufino Biazon.
This is due to the slowdown in growth of imports, strengthening of the peso against the US dollar, and imposition of zero tariff on about 2,000 commodities.
“The new revenue target is very challenging. It is a 30% increase from last year,” Biazon said. “The ideal increase… should only be 10-15% annually. In 2011, the BOC was given a collection target of P320 billion but this was reduced to P276 billion.”
