Three ports to corner half of BOC revenues

MANILA, Philippines – The bulk of revenues targeted to be raised by the Bureau of Customs this year will be sourced from three port districts whose collections contracted in 2015.

According to Customs data, a combined 46.06 percent of targeted collections will come from the Manila International Container Port (MICP), the Port of Manila and Port of Batangas.

Customs, which traditionally accounts for a fifth of state revenues, is tasked to collect P498.87 billion this year, up 14.29 percent from the 2015 goal.

Of the total amount, 25.87 percent or P143.72 billion will come from MICP, 20.19 percent (P105.897 billion) from the Batangas port, and 19.61 percent (P87.604 billion) will be sourced from the Manila port.

The three ports were not included in the list of top performing districts provided by Customs last Monday.

“Sixteen among 31 sub-ports exceeded their respective targets in terms of nominal amount and percentage deviation,” Customs said.

Among the top ports and their respective collections were the Port of Cebu (P16.529 billion), Port of Iloilo (P2.308 billion), Port of Davao (P11.56 billion), Port of Clark in Pampanga (P1.284 billion) and Port of Legaspi (P324.2 million).

The Ports of Zamboanga and Surigao were also in the list by collecting P180.6 million and P18.7 million, respectively.

Last month, the bureau conceded it did not only miss its P436.5-billion target, but also had its total revenues fall below the previous year’s level.

The agency collected P366.9 billion last year, down 0.6 percent year-on-year, data showed.