The Customs chief said their latest records showed that eight of the 15 district ports were able to surpass their respective targets following his order to reassign district collectors last month.
Morales said it was an improvement since only six or seven ports have been usually meeting their assigned targets in the first six months of the year.
"This improvement in performance was somehow expected and it is because of the reshuffling of assignments that we had," he pointed out.
An official financial report of the agency showed the bureau exceeding its monthly tax collection target of P15.44 billion for July by 6.9 percent, or P1.07 billion.
The bureau’s actual collection of P16.51 billion for July also showed a 54.6-percent increase as compared to collection posted in the same period last year, which was P10.68 billion.
Morales said the July record brings to P111.23 billion the total collection of the bureau over the past seven months.
This amount, he noted, is P5.7 billion above their seven-month target of P105.58 billion and also a whopping 40.5-percent or P32.1 billion more than last year’s P79.16 billion actual collections for the same period.
The Port of Batangas, now under district collector Grace Caringal, again led the collection campaign by exceeding its target of P2.56 billion by 47 percent, or P1.19 billion.
Among the most improved performances after the reshuffle was that of Port of Legazpi, which surpassed its July target of P1.4 billion by 28.6 percent, collecting P1.8 billion as compared to only P400 million last month. This port district is now under the command of District Collector Titus Sangil.
However, Morales stressed there are still port districts that need to meet their targets, including the Manila International Container Port (MICP) and Port of Cebu.