Customs told to collect P50 billion monthly until December

NEWLY SEATED Customs Commissioner Isidro S. Lapeña must raise at least P50.1 billion in monthly revenues for the last four months of the year as his main task at the bureau, the country’s Finance chief said, stressing the need to ramp up collections to meet the annual target.

“P50.1 billion — that is the marching order. Don’t forget you are a revenue generating agency and this is your target,” Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III recalled telling the Customs chief as he faced reporters on Thursday, noting that the bureau is roughly 4.35% below its programmed collections year-to-date.

This would mean almost P2 billion in import taxes collected in a day. Mr. Dominguez said the job would be “easy” with the seasonal imports surge underway ahead of Christmas.

The BoC — the second-largest tax collector that contributes about a fifth to total state revenues — raked in P246.98 billion in January-July, up by 11.5% year on year but short of its P257.1-billion target for those seven months. Customs is expected to collect P467.9 billion this year.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte appointed Mr. Lapeña as Customs chief, replacing ex-Commissioner Nicanor E. Faeldon who resigned after P6.4-billion worth of methamphetamine passed through the bureau under his watch earlier this year.

Mr. Lapeña, former director general of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, took office on Aug. 30 with warnings of an impending “internal cleansing.” He vowed to remove the reported pasalubong (welcome cash gift for incoming officials) and tara (grease money) culture in the agency as he prioritizes the anti-graft drive under his leadership. Mr. Lapeña said he will bring in his own men to help introduce “transformative” measures in the bureau, which has been tagged among the most corrupt.

Finance Undersecretary Antonette C. Tionko added that Mr. Lapeña would likewise have to continue the drafting of implementing rules and regulations for the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act.

During his inaugural speech last week, Mr. Lapeña vowed to implement a bureau-wide computerization in order to fast-track trade facilitation and help deter smuggling and corruption, with less human intervention and fewer signatures needed to clear shipments.

The government lost as much as P12.352 trillion due to trade misinvoicing, involving misdeclaration of the value of goods, among others from 1960 to 2011, Customs data showed. — Melissa Luz T. Lopez