MANILA: Ten out of 17 collection districts of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) have exceeded their collection targets for the first six months of the year. The BOC–Finance Service reported that more than PHP212.16 billion in duties and taxes were collected from January to June this year. The figure was up by 11.3 percent from the PHP190-billion revenue amassed during the same period in 2016. On the other hand, the ports and their respective earnings are: Port of San Fernando collected PHP1.517 billion, up 35.4 percent from PHP1.120 billion target; Port of Legaspi collected PHP194.5 million, up 58.8 percent from PHP122.4 million target; Port of Iloilo collected PHP1.213 billion, up 0.7 percent from PHP1.205 billion target; Port of Tacloban collected PHP169.8 million, up 59.3 percent from PHP106.6 million target; Port of Surigao collected PHP6.3 million, up 9.7 percent from PHP5.7 million target.
The other ports that also surpassed their collection targets were: Port of Cagayan de Oro which collected PHP6.572 billion, up 20.5 percent from PHP5.454 billion; Port of Zamboanga collected PHP229.5 million, up 106.5 percent from PHP111 million; Port of Davao collected PHP7.912 billion, up 20.8 percent from PHP6.548 billion; Port of Subic collected PHP7.877 billion, up 3.1 percent from PHP7.640 billion; and Port of Clark collected PHP707.2 million, up 11.7 percent from PHP633 million. At the same time, the BOC–Finance Service reported that the bureau has already achieved 97.4 percent of its PHP217.96 billion revenue target for the first semester and is expected to improve in the coming months. With this, Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon acknowledged the efforts of the officials and employees in the ports for the improved collections. “I congratulate all our port collectors and employees for their efforts in improving the bureau’s revenue collections,” he said in a statement. The BOC chief added that they are working on several developmental projects designed to beef up the workforce, improve IT systems, modernize facilities and operations, and enforce stricter border security to further improve collections.
