Peso fall affects imports — Customs

The Bureau of Customs is bracing itself for "rough times ahead" as importers adopt a wait-and-see attitude over the continuous decline of the peso vis-à-vis the dollar.

Customs officials said the high exchange rate of P55.16 to a dollar is discouraging non-traditional importers to import. The non-traditional importers account for about 30 percent of the total volume of importations.

Badly hit by the high exchange rate are manufacturing companies which rely on the importations of raw materials for export of their finished products.

"The volume of importations has been reduced to 50 percent. Where an export-oriented company used to import its raw materials six times a month, now it is down to only three times a month because of the high rate of exchange," said a Customs broker.

The effects on the reduction on the volume of importations could be felt, however, two to three months from now as shipments that have been ordered some weeks ago start arriving only this month until October.

Customs Commissioner Antonio Bernardo has made the rounds of major district ports in Manila to encourage the officials to double their efforts to meet the assigned revenue collection target of P100.56 billion for the year 2003.

"We will not shirk from our primary responsibility of collecting revenues. We appeal to you for your all-out effort towards this end," Bernardo also said in his message to all district collectors nationwide.

Bernardo, whose courtesy resignation was rejected Friday by Malacañang together with that of his four deputies, also appealed to the members of the Bureau of Customs Employees Association (BOCEA) to forego their plans for a "work stoppage" as counter-productive.

Although the bureau has an excess collection of P5 billion for the seven-month period beginning January to July, the coming months may be difficult given the "uncertainties of the times," Bernardo said.

"This is the reason why we should unite and double our efforts and to give one big push for the coming months’ revenue collections," Bernardo stressed.