Customs collection exceeds Nov target

The Philippines said its duties collection exceeded its monthly target in November, raising the chance the government met its deficit goal for the month.

The government said that based on preliminary data, collections of the Bureau of Customs reached P8.988 billion, 1.6 percent higher than the target of P8.843 billion. For January to November, duties collection totalled P96.44 billion, higher than the goal of P91.928 billion.

Aside from customs duties, the government’s other main source of revenues are taxes, which comprise roughly 70 percent of total collections. A government official said on Monday that the Philippines – Asia’s largest sovereign debt issuer outside of Japan – likely met its budget deficit target of about P18 billion for November.

Juanita Amatong, officer-in-charge of the Department of Finance, also said the government was confident of meeting its P202-billion budget deficit goal for the whole of 2003, equivalent to 4.7 percent of projected gross domestic product.

The government ended last year with a shortfall of P210.7 billion or 5.2 percent of GDP, after blowing through deficit targets three times due to anemic tax and duties collection.