BOC earns P11M/day since port takeover

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has already earned P232.4 million or an average of P11 million daily since taking over the operations of the Harbour Center Port Terminal (HCPT) last Sept. 15, it was learned yesterday.

Port of Manila district collector Ronnie Silvestre said that the figures represent the total tax collection from the Customs operations at the private wharf in the reclaimed Smokey Mountain area from Sept. 15 up to Oct. 6, 2004.

Silvestre attributed the positive tax collection performance at the HCPT to the increase in the volume of importation of bulk cargoes, which consist of steel and logs, and to the close supervision and monitoring of arriving shipments by the bureau.

For the first time, BOC personnel have been assigned at the HCPT on a 24-hour basis to supervise and oversee operations at the said port terminal following the establishment of a permanent customs office in the area.

Silvestre said the assignment of BOC personnel had stopped baseless reports of alleged smuggling taking place at the HCPT due to the failure of the bureau to closely monitor operations at the privately-owned wharf in the past.

"Now the bureau has its personnel contingent inside the HCPT who monitor and control customs operations at the HCPT thereby giving the bureau the exact data on the number of shipments at the said port terminal for purposes of transparency in tax collection," Silvestre said.

The HCPT is a modern port terminal sitting on a 10-hectare reclaimed area of the former Smokey Mountain dump site. It provides modern facilities for ship docking for bulk cargoes which the old Manila port could no longer handle due to congestion.

It is the newest private commercial port for foreign and domestic vessels and boasts of amenities unmatched by any other port facility in the country.