Customs falls P10 billion short of 2005 collection target

Pretty huge but still not enough.

Incoming Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales gave this assessment of the agency’s nearly P140 billion in total collections for the year, an amount he said was still P10 billion short of the department’s revenue target.

With just a day left before the fiscal year ends, Morales said yesterday it was statistically impossible for the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to meet its target collection of P151 billion.

"Hindi na kaya. Babawi na lang kami next year (It’s impossible. We will just make up for it next year)," Morales told The STAR.

Morales’ report aggravated the government’s financial woes after the National Treasury found that the government’s spending in November was P7.3 billion more than its revenues, which contributed to growth in the country’s budget deficit.

Despite the BOC’s failure to meet its target collection this year, Morales said there is no turning back on his assignment to collect P202 billion next year, which is some 34 percent higher than last year’s projected revenue.

However, he admitted that his administration in the bureau would be a "very challenging task" because an ordinary corporation would find it hard to increase its target collection by even just five percent.

The new Customs chief, who officially takes over his post on Monday with a simple turnover ceremony in the bureau’s office in Port Area in Manila, said he will meet with Finance Secretary Margarito Teves to discuss his "game plan" for the bureau in the coming fiscal year.

"I will have to present my proposal to Secretary Teves before I could reveal it to the media," Morales said.

But Morales revealed that his focus would include the anti-graft and corruption campaign inside the bureau, which he said could be a better way to increase its collection.

The BOC chief said the government has been losing significant amounts of revenue to technical smuggling, or the undervaluation of goods coming into the country.

Saying he would exercise "hands-on" management at the bureau, Morales has vowed to "monitor the proper valuation and the proper tariff classification in order to arrive at the correct duties and taxes for the government."

Morales, a four-time most outstanding collector at the BOC, was head of the Valuation Reference Information System and took charge of monitoring the valuation and classification of imported goods before his appointment.

He joined the Bureau of Customs in 1968 as a messenger and was promoted as Customs examiner, principal examiner, appraiser and principal appraiser. The positions he held involved examination, valuation and classification of imported goods, which are the basis of payment of duties and taxes.

In 2001, he was appointed as district collector of the Port of Batangas and was promoted the following year as district collector of Manila. He was reassigned at the Port of Batangas in 2004.

During his three terms as District Collector of the two major ports, Morales was consistently awarded for his excellent performance in revenue generation. Under his stewardship, the Ports of Manila and Batangas realized an accumulated collection.

Morales replaced BOC Deputy Commissioner Alexander Arevalo as OIC.