THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) under Commissioner Bienvenido Rubio needs to work doubly hard with the end of the year fast approaching if it is to hit its assigned revenue target of P959 billion and Rubio’s ambitious pronouncement of even collecting P1 trillion by year end to forever stamp his legacy as customs chief.
For the first 10 months of the year, the BOC said it collected P784.54 billion, up by 6 percent compared to the same period last year or by P44 billion more collection from the base figure of P740.095 billion.
However, the increase translates to just 0.6 percent or P4.55 billion surplus from its assigned target of P779.99 billion for the period.
In October, the BOC collected P89.502 billion, surpassing its target of P86.102 billion by 3.9 percent or by P3.4 billion.
The minuscule increase is a far cry from Rubios’ declaration early this year before Department of Finance Secretary Ralph Recto that he already has a “strategy” to increase the agency’s revenue collection “by 15 to 20 percent,” which he said, would be done thru “vigilant monitoring and continuous improvement of modernization projects.”
Rubio made the commitment to Recto last January 24, during his visit after his appointment as finance secretary and ahead of the agency’s 122nd anniversary the following month.
With the P959 billion collection target and its actual collection from year to date as basis, the BOC is still short by P179 billion, a difference that it must somehow fill up with just 2 months remaining before the end of the year.