The Philippine Bureau of Customs (BOC) generated P304.5 billion in revenues for 2013, up 5.1% or P14.67 billion over the P289.9 billion collected in 2012. The collection was, however, still short of the agency’s P340-billion target for 2013.
This year the revenue goal is P408.1 billion.
For December 2013 alone, collections reached P23.796 billion, of which 99.86% were from cash collections, which grew 19.3% month-on-month, its fastest pace for 2013.
Total cash collections for the whole of 2013 rose 7% to P302.13 billion year-on-year.
December collections from the Tax Expenditure Fund, non-cash collections recorded on paper for government transactions, reached only P2 million.
“The surge in the growth trajectory in the last quarter of 2013, which broke the trend growth of 5% in the first three quarters, indicates that the President’s Customs Reform Program implemented in October 2013 is beginning to bear fruit. With vigorous and continuous systemic reforms, we are confident that the Bureau can become a greater contributor to government coffers and become a more reliable and credible partner in nation-building and economic growth. We are hopeful that the momentum will be carried over in 2014,” said Customs Commissioner John Sevilla in a statement.
The Collection Districts of Legaspi, Subic, Clark, Aparri, Iloilo, Cebu, Cagayan De Oro and Davao picked up part of the slack from the Ports of Manila and Batangas, the Manila International Container Port and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport—the largest in terms of revenues and trade volume, exceeding their collection target by a total of P9.2 billion in 2013.
BOC contributes about 22% of the national government’s total revenues.
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