The Bureau of Customs (BOC) is proposing a 2016 budget of P3.2 billion, 4.7% higher than this year’s P3.056 billion.
The agency said the 2016 allocation will help realize its target of 100% customer satisfaction and 100% goods clearance within 10 days from the filing of import declaration, according to a press release by Senator Ralph Recto.
All government agencies are now required to include performance indicators in their budget request so funding allocations can be matched with measurable deliverables.
Among BOC’s 2016 goals, according to Recto, is a 15% seizure rate for “shipments selected and physically examined or X-rayed,” which means one in every seven incoming shipments for inspection could be seized.
The solon suggested that BOC include in its performance targets “the maximum number of days within which a balikbayan box will be released from the day it arrives in a Philippine port.”
He noted that if BOC has a target for seizures, the agency should also set a maximum number of days for a balikbayan box to stay inside the port.
Moreover, Recto said BOC has pledged that “the baggage of arriving international passengers and crew will be processed within 30 minutes of their presentation to the Customs.”
He explained that “the impression we’re getting is that a very, very small number of incoming passengers and OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) will be subjected to baggage inspection as a result of the establishment of ‘Nothing to Declare’ lanes in all of the country’s airports.”
Still, Recto noted that BOC is targeting 6,000 airport inspections next year, which will result in “detection of irregularities.” He noted this is a small number compared to the 18 million air passenger arrivals yearly.
Recto said “the probability of irregularities is always high if we do not increase the maximum tax-exempt value of personal belongings that a returning national can bring home.”
Current regulations cap at P10,000 the value of goods a returning balikbayan can bring home to the country.
In his Balikbayan Box Bill, Recto wants the ceiling raised to US$2,000 and for the cap to cover shipped, mailed, and hand-carried cargo. The bill was filed after reports that BOC would conduct random physical inspection of balikbayan box shipments. The measure was stopped by President Benigno Aquino III who ordered x-ray inspection instead.
For 2015, the BOC is tasked to increase its cash collections by 10% and raise sales from forfeited and abandoned items by 40%. The original revenue-collection goal for 2015 was P456.458 billion but this was cut to P436.592 billion due to lower oil prices in recent months that has affected collection of duties from oil and non-oil commodities.
In the area of trade facilitation, this year’s BOC target is to reduce export documents to five and import documents to six. – Roumina Pablo
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
