THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) is looking at including collectibles from other government agencies in its financial report to ensure the bureau meets its collection targets.
Customs commissioner Napoleon Morales in an interview said the unpaid duties and taxes of government agencies related to the importation of rice, corn, sugar and coal are more than enough to plug revenue shortfalls for the year.
“We are really keen on collecting these unpaid bills. We will be sending letters to the government agencies involved such as the Department of Agriculture, the National Food Administration and others to remind them to pay their unpaid accounts,” Morales said.
“According to our estimates, the amount would exceed the current collection shortfall of about P15 billion and will enable the bureau of post some surplus if we can collect the accounts immediately,” he added.
“We are already looking at including these collectibles in our financial statements to meet our target collection as the depreciation of the peso really hit the agency big time,” Morales said.
He said while the strong peso meant some savings in loan repayment,the same has at the same time caused revenue losses of P3 billion.
