UPDATED ON MAY 27, 6pm, to reflect correct May revenue target.
The Philippine Bureau of Customs (BOC) has collected P33.752 billion in the first 22 days of May, 6% or P2 billion more than the target for the said period, Customs commissioner Isidro Lapeña said in a press briefing on May 24.
The collection target for the entire May is P50.6 billion.
He said most of the collection districts have already hit their targets, as he expressed optimism that those that haven’t yet will do so with nine more days to go.
Lapeña said he expects a higher surplus at the end of the month. This is the fourth consecutive month that the customs agency has exceeded its monthly revenue target.
He said one of the reasons for the positive performance is that more importers are declaring the correct value of their shipments instead of undervaluing them or resorting to benchmarking, a practice that he noted earlier robs the government of rightful earnings.
BOC’s target collection for 2018 is P598.1 billion.
