MANILA: The Bureau of Customs (BOC), the second largest revenue earner of the government, is unlikely to reach its full year revenue this year, as it has only collected P353.07 billion ($7.487) as of December 17.
The agency is aiming for P436.6 billion ($9.258 billion) in revenues for 2015.
In addition, an initial collection report showed that the agency’s actual collections were short by P67.6 billion ($1.433 billion) of its P420.73 billion ($8.922 billion) revenue goal from January 1 to December 17.
Collections in the remaining two weeks of December are not expected to fill in the gap to meet the target.
Last year, the agency also failed to meet its revenue target.
The same report showed that 10 of the country’s ports were way below their respective targets during the period.
The Port of Limay, an oil port, incurred the biggest shortfall of P23 billion ($487.7 million), collecting P21.12 billion($447.8 million) against its P44.11 ($935.4 million) billion revenue goal.
Batangas Port and the Port of Manila (POM) followed, with a deficit of P14.46 billion ($306.6 million) and P13.63 billion ($289 million), respectively.
Two other Metro Manila ports – the Manila International Container Port (MICP) and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) – contributed heavily to BOC’s overall shortfall.
MICP posted a deficit of P12.56 billion ($266.3 million) while the collection shortfall of NAIA was pegged at P3.34 billion ($70.83 million).
The other deficits were recorded in Subic, P1.82 billion ($38.59 million); San Fernando, P786.8 million ($16.68 million); Cagayan De Oro, P760.4 million ($16.12 million); Aparri, P443.4 million ($9.403 million); and Tacloban, P31.1 million ($664,057).
Only NAIA remained operational on December 24 to 25, while the rest were closed during the holidays, which was a factor in the shortfall.
