THE Bureau of Customs' (BOC) December revenue collection will most likely miss its monthly target but surpass the December 2009 take.
This will bring the agency to six straight months of unmet targets, coincidentally since Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez came into office.
Preliminary data shows the December collection may amount to P18.45 billion or P2.65 billion less than the P21.1-billion cash goal. For the same month last year, it took in P17.96 billion.
Including income from the tax expenditure fund, the total revenue target for December is P23.1 billion.
Alvarez attributed the depressed collection to the peso appreciation, high utilization of tax credit certificates, and reduced to zero tariff on some high-value imports.
BOC has lost more than P1.4 billion from foreign exchange adjustments since January.
According to estimates, every P1 improvement in the peso exchange rate against the US dollar translates to a monthly loss for the BOC of P400 million.
This year's revenue forecast assumes an exchange rate of P45 to US$1 but the peso in April strengthened to P44.62, in September to P44.31, and in October to P43.44, Alvarez noted.
Meanwhile, BOC's foregone revenues due to tax credits availed of by oil firms have so far amounted to P9.2 billion.
Effects of tariff reduction
The greatest setback in revenue collection though came from tariff reduction on such items as plastics and plastic products, oil, iron and steel, paper and paperboard, organic chemicals, fertilizers, inorganic chemicals and lime and cement.
From January to October, losses from reduced tariff on petroleum products have reached P6.57 billion; from cereals, P4.1 billion; plastics, P1.7 billion; iron and steel, P1.1 billion; and paper and paperboard, P360 million.
Foregone revenues as a result of zero duty on the country's top ten commodities in terms of volume have reached P17.55 billion for the first ten months of the year.
For 2010, BOC has a P280.68-billion target. For the first 11 months though, the agency has already reported a deficit of P30.16 billion.
“For the year, our cash collection may reach P225 billion out of our target of P241-billion target,” Alvarez said.
