Customs capacity building center to open soon

A NEW building at the Bureau of Customs Port of Davao compound will be inaugurated later this month as "reward" for the district's "excellent performance" during the first four months of the year.

Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales is arriving at the Port of Davao to inaugurate the new Customs Capacity Building Center and the newly renovated Davao Customs staff house.

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"This is part of the reward of the central office to the Port of Davao for not only meeting the targets but also exceeding the targets since January to April," lawyer Anju Nereo Castigador, district collector of the Port of Davao, said Tuesday.

For the first four months of the year, the Port of Davao exceeded its collection by 20 percent signaling renewed port activity following a relatively slow period during the global financial slowdown of 2009.

From January to April, all collection targets have been surpassed by BOC, even going beyond revenues collected for the first four months of 2009.

"We experienced very positive growth in the first four months of the year, and we are confident this will continue the whole year as economies start to revive trade after the financial crisis last year," Castigador said.

With a monthly collection not going below P200 million during the first four months, BOC is nearing the P1 billion mark this early in the year.

In January 2010, the actual collection of the Port of Davao was at P248.1 million or 30 percent higher than the P191.6 million importations and tariff collection in January 2009.

This was followed by a collection of P204.8 million for the month of February.

March 2010 showed a leaner growth of 11.65 percent or actual collection of P230.4 million; revenues in March 2009 reached P206.4 million.

In April this year, revenue collections of the Bureau of Customs reached P290.2 million or nearly 50 percent higher than the P193.8 million in April 2009.

Total collections for the first four months of the year is at P973.6 million or 20.36 percent higher than the P808 million collected for the same period in 2009.

"The commissioner is set to arrive on the 16th of June, and he will inaugurate these non-monetary rewards for the Port of Davao," Castigador said.