PHILIPPINE port collections for the month of September grew 11.3% to P25.841 billion, from P23.208 billion a year ago, boosting the Bureau of Customs’ hopes of hitting its P300-billion revenue milestone this month.
The double-digit growth marks the third month in a row of improvement in collections. However, the September take was 10.3% short of the P29.173 billion target set by the inter-agency Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC).
Revenue for the first nine months of the year grew 5.1% to P224.45 billion over last year’s P213.658 billion, but was 11.8% below the P250.436-billion goal set by the DBCC.
“Our growth momentum looks promising. From preliminary reports, we are poised to hit our internal revenue collection milestone of P300 billion in October,” Customs Commissioner Rozzano Rufino Biazon said.
Contributing the bulk of collections for the first nine months were the Manila International Container Port (P59.534 billion), Port of Manila (P42.474 billion) and Batangas Port (P45.762 billion).
However, these ports’ total collections of P147.77 billion were below their nine-month target.
Out of BOC’s 17 ports, only eight are on track to hit the nine-month target. These are the ports of Iloilo (P793 million), Cebu (P75.01 billion), Tacloban (P199 million), Surigao (P39 million), Cagayan de Oro (P4.985 billion), Davao (P4.449 billion), Subic (P7.968 billion) and Clark Airport (P1.247 billion).
“We will be within striking distance of the collection target set by the DBCC. Our personnel at the BOC continue to perform despite the organizational changes that have occurred in the past weeks,” Biazon said.
“I am confident that we will catch up in the last quarter of 2013, as seasonal import increases and operational efficiencies are implemented,” he said.
The DBCC has set a collection target of P30.508 billion for the month of October, and P340 billion for the whole of 2013.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
