By Sarwell Meniano/PNA
TACLOBAN CITY — The Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) field office here has earned an all-time high of PHP1.12 billion in collections in 2018, nearly quadrupling its target income.
In less than six months last year, the bureau has already surpassed the PHP388 million annual collection goal, BOC-Tacloban district collector Jose Naig said in a press briefing Tuesday. This is the first time for the regional BOC to hit the PHP1 billion collection mark.
The district office, which covers all ports in six provinces of the Eastern Visayas region, has doubled its collection compared to the PHP524 million earnings in the previous year.
The BOC noted high collections from the importation of fuel, liquefied petroleum gas, rice, cement, and construction materials.
For fuel alone, the agency earned PHP133 million in July alone from a shipment of 7,300 metric tons of unleaded gasoline by Insular Oil Corp. through the Babatngon, Leyte port, according to Naig.
The Customs official said the importation of rice by the National Food Authority accelerated in the second half of last year in response to the rice shortage.
Demand for construction materials also went up with the government’s “Build, Build, Build” initiative and continuing reconstruction activities after Super Typhoon Yolanda in the past five years.
The sub-port of Isabel, Leyte has been consistently earning high collections from ore, slag, ash, inorganic chemicals, organic and inorganic compounds of precious metals, and others. These are raw material requirements of the Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corp. and the Philippine Phosphate Fertilizer Corp.
For 2019, the BOC raised its target for the region to PHP1.2 billion as the bureau raised its nationwide goal to PHP677 billion from PHP588 billion last year.
“Even with the record-high collection goal, we are optimistic to meet or even surpass the target this year as demand for imported products increases. Once the Rice Tariffication bill is approved, we will get to be able to collect more from the importation of rice from neighboring countries,” Naig said.
The BOC is an agency under the Department of Finance primarily tasked to assess and collect customs revenues from imported goods and other dues, fees, charges, fines and penalties. It is also mandated to prevent the entry of smuggled goods.
