THE Bureau of Customs was likely to have missed its September collection target, making its total goal for 2009 of P273.3 billion even harder to reach.
No actual figure has been released but Customs commissioner Napoleon Morales said this will “likely (be) way below target”, adding that the bureau has so far “not been able to achieve its monthly” goals.
Morales attributed the shortfall to continuing slow imports.
The September target is P25 billion.
In August, the BOC posted its biggest revenue shortfall, collecting only P18.251 billion or P6.770 billion below the P25.021-billion target for the month.
From January to August, BOC took in P147.216 billion or P28.217 billion less than the goal of P175.433 billion.
Despite the shortfall, government is keeping its 2009 budget deficit of P250 billion or 3.2% of gross domestic product (GDP), revised from P199.2 billion or 2.5% of GDP.BOC collections jumped 51.25% to P260.2 billion in 2008 from P209.4 billion in 2007. Last year’s take was P6.2 billion greater than the target of P254.5 billion.
