THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) exceeded its first-quarter collection by 25.7% or about P10 billion to P48.81 billion compared with the same period last year, according to preliminary BOC data which has yet to include the last few days of March.
The figure is, however, P6.32 billion shy of the bureau’s P55.13-billion target.
From March 1 to 23, the BOC already surpassed its entire March 2009 collection of P10.33 billion by more than P4 billion to P14.5 billion.
But the March figure is below the goal of P19.61 billion. The BOC is confident the shortfall will be plugged by the Tax Expenditure Fund from the National Food Authority’s rice shipments.
Customs commissioner Napoleon Morales said the BOC may reach its target for the quarter mainly as a result of strong shipments of petroleum products.
In January alone, 788.74 million kilograms of crude oil were imported from only 43.38 million kilograms in January 2009. As a result, the BOC in January earned P192.3 million from duties and P1.14 billion in value-added tax (VAT) payments from the same month last year’s P51.3 million in duties and P213.8 million in VAT.
