The Philippine Bureau of Customs raised P68.5 billion in the first quarter of the year, P7.83 billion short of its P76.3-billion target for the period.
Customs Commissioner Rozzano Rufino Biazon blamed the deficit on the January-March period being “traditionally a lean season” for imports, noting it “comes immediately after the high demand of the Christmas season and the slowdown during the (Lunar) New Year.”
He added, “In addition, stricter measures were implemented in March to target traders who undervalue and misdeclare, making those who play the ‘cat and mouse’ game to adopt a wait-and-see attitude.”
Biazon said “the evaluation of our port personnel’s revenue collection performance will be included in the assessment of who will be moved in the next round of customs reshuffle.
“We may have found the right chemistry among our officials to enable us to meet our collection target for 2013 although it remains to be seen as we progress through the year…I won’t hesitate to undertake more rounds of reconfigurations should I find it necessary if only to ensure our meeting our collection target this year.”
In March, the BOC missed its revenue target with collections totaling P21.09 billion, P6.91 billion short of its P28-billion goal for the 31-day period.
The bureau disclosed that in the first quarter, only five of its 17 collection districts met their revenue targets. They were the Subic Freeport, Clark International Airport, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu and Iloilo.
The Subic port’s collections totaled P1.84 billion, P391 million more than its three-month target of P1.45 billion.
Clark collected P610 million against its target of P230 million, or a surplus of P380 million, while Cagayan de Oro’s revenues amounted to P1.62 billion, or P330 million more than its target of P1.29 billion.
Cebu’s collections totaled P2.10 billion compared with its goal of P2.05 billion, or a surplus of P50 million.
With total revenues of P203 million, Iloilo surpassed its quarterly target of P194 million by P9.3 million. Cagayan de Oro port raised P553 million, which was P112 million more than its target of P442 million.
The other customs collection districts did not fare well.
With a P20.3-billion target, the Manila International Container Port collected only P17.4 billion, a shortfall of P2.98 billion. The Port of Manila collected P13.3 billion, against its target of P15.8 billion, or a deficit of P2.48 billion as against its target of P5.64 billion.
The Ninoy Aquino International Airport suffered a deficit of P331 million with revenues of P5.76 billion compared with its quarterly target of P6.09 billion.
Other BOC ports that missed their targets were Batangas City, by P1.82 billion; Limay, Bataan, by P398 million; San Fernando, La Union, by P103 million; Davao City, by P69 million; Aparri, Cagayan, by P28 million; Legazpi City, by P17 million; Surigao City, by P9.4 million; Tacloban City, by P5.8 million; and Zamboanga City, by P6.1 million.
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