Customs fetches P68B from May 2022 revenue collections

The Bureau of Customs collected over P68 billion in May, bringing the total revenues for the country's coffers to P322.472 billion in 2022, so far.

In a statement released on Thursday, the BOC noted that the P68.245 billion collected in May was a 20.8% (or P11.767B) increase from its P56.478-billion target collection for the month.

It said that 15 of the 17 collection districts exceeded their targets for the month, based on the preliminary report from the BOC-Financial Service.

These were the Port of San Fernando, Port of Manila, MICP, Ports of Batangas, Legaspi, Iloilo, Cebu, Tacloban, Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga, Davao, Subic, Clark, Aparri, and Limay.

In April, the BOC also surpassed its target by over P10 billion or 19.6% with a total collection of P65.7B.

Last March, the agency recorded its highest monthly revenue collection in its history with P70 billion.

Customs' initial report indicates that the P322.472 billion total revenues collected since January represents 47.5% of the 2022 annual target collection of P679.226B.

BOC credited the feat to the “improved valuation, intensified collection efforts, measures preventing revenue leakage, and the recovering economy of the country” amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Despite this performance, the Bureau maintained its border security measures against undervaluation, misdeclaration and other forms of technical smuggling and collect lawful revenues,” it said.

The BOC is the government’s second largest revenue-generating agency next to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

For the past two years, the agency said it was able to surpass its annual target collection by 6.23% and 4.35% respectively even during a global health crisis.

Northern Samar 1st District Representative Paul Daza on Wednesday appealed to incoming Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno to choose the “rightful people” for the BOC as economic recovery greatly relies on efficient revenue collection. —LBG, GMA News