Port of Manila exceeds May target

MANILA, Philippines - For the fifth consecutive month, the Port of Manila, the Bureau of Customs’ second largest port by revenue, has again exceeded its revenue collection target.

The Port of Manila for the month of May has collected P4.39 billion excluding non-cash collections or a positive deviation of 4.1 percent which resulted to a surplus of P174 million.

Based on the initial report submitted by the financial service, among the 17 collection districts of the Bureau of Customs, the Port of Manila as of the end of May has posted the highest surplus collection recorded at P5.2 billion by collecting P21.8 billion against its target of P16.6 billion, and the only billionaire port that surpassed its collection target for the month of April and May 2010.

The P5.2-billion surplus of the Port of Manila is equivalent to 87 percent of the total collection surplus of the whole Bureau of Custom for the first five months of the year.

Preliminary report from the office of BOC Commissioner Napoleon L. Morales revealed that the Bureau’s total surplus of P6 billion includes Tax Expenditure Funds (TEF) or commonly known as deferred payment, while the P5.2 billion surplus of the Port of Manila represents purely cash collection. The revenue collection of the Bureau is way above compared to its collection performance last year.

The collection performance of the Port of Manila has remarkably improved since the assumption of the youngest Custom collector, Rogel Gatchalian, considering that for the first five months of the year, POM now enjoys a +31 percent deviation with a P5-billion surplus.

In fact, there were reports that district collectors of other ports are lobbying with some Bureau officials for a portion of their collection targets to be transferred to the Port of Manila in order for them to attain a positive deviation.

The formal entry division (FED), headed by Meliton Pascual, contributed 75 percent of the total collection of the Port of Manila by collecting P3.3 billion, while the Habor Center under Waldo Geli added P691 million and has surpassed its assigned target for the seventh straight month from November 2009.