THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) will increase this year’s collection target at its main ports by P5 billion.
“Although the Department of Finance has said there is no need for us to raise our target, we decided to increase it by P5 billion without any regard to our recorded five-month excess in the tax collection goal,” Customs com-missioner Napoleon Morales said.
BOC has an original collection target of P275.68 billion for the year.
The agency has been hitting its targets for the past five months. From January to May, it posted a surplus of P6.28 billion vis-à-vis a target of P101.19 billion. In May, the surplus was P754 million, thanks to the tax expenditure fund representing government subsidies for rice imports of the National Food Authority.
“The mere fact we were able to collect that much in the first five months, it is likewise possible for the next administration to raise another P5 billion notwithstanding our over-performance in the first five months,” Morales said.
“Most of the additional P5 billion would be in the form of cash, but tax expenditure funds would account for 10% to less than 20%,” he added.
“This (increase in collection target) is indeed an added burden for the BOC, but we decided to take it on since they said the economy is booming,” Morales said.
Earlier, the Development Budget Coordination Committee adjusted upward its macro-economic assumptions as a result of the country’s faster economic growth in the past few months.
Ports likely to have a new collection target include the Manila International Container Port, the Port of Manila, Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Batangas Port and Limay in Mariveles.
