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Philippines: Customs revenues down but beat target in August
MANILA, Philippines — Lackluster trade activity continued to push down revenues raised by the Bureau of Customs, but collections were so far enough to beat targets already tempered by government.
In a statement on Wednesday, Customs reported to have raised P44.6 billion last month, beating the P33.7-billion goal by 32.5%, and marking the third straight month that the bureau performed better than expected.
“The BOC’s positive revenue collection performance is attributed to the improved valuation and intensified collection efforts of all the ports,” Customs said.
Broken down, nine of Customs’ 17 collection districts surpassed their respective targets for the month. These were the ports in Tacloban, Zamboanga, Aparri, Limay, Clark, Cebu, Subic, Cagayan De Oro and Davao.
On a year-on-year basis however, Customs have continued to struggle to collect due to the pandemic. While targets have been met, the agency’s total haul for August was down 16.7% from P53.59 billion a year ago.
Customs, which accounts for a fifth of state revenues, mainly generate revenues from import levies, but since the pandemic struck last March, shipments have dwindled due to global lockdowns. From January to July, merchandise imports went down 29% year-on-year.
Adding to Customs’ worries is the strong peso. A strong local currency enables the purchase imported goods at much lower costs, and therefore, much lower taxes.
With the coronavirus outbreak weakening trade activity, economic managers have lowered Customs’ annual targets three times since March. For this year, the agency is tasked to collect P506.15 billion, which if raised, will be 19.7% down from last year.
Apart from the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Customs is one of the government’s main revenue agencies, traditionally accounting for a fifth of state revenues.
“Despite this performance, the Bureau maintained its border security measures against undervaluation, misdeclaration and other forms of technical smuggling and collect lawful revenues,” Customs said. — Ian Nicolas Cigaral
Source: https://www.philstar.com/business/2020/09/02/2039620/customs-revenues-down-beat-target-august