Sunday, August 12, 2007 Arroyo scolds customs personnel over deficit
PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo told Bureau of Customs (BOC) collectors to catch up with the P13 billion-shortfall in their revenue collections or ship out.
Arroyo presided over the revenue command conference of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) at the Port of Manila (POM) building, where she threshed out collection reports “section by section” in the POM and the Manila International Container Port (MICP).
“She read them the riot act,” Presidential Management Staff (PMS) director general Cerge Remonde said, adding that the President told customs officials that they do not have any business staying in their posts if they cannot perform well.
Remonde also said the President ordered the BOC to coordinate closely with the newly created Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG).
In her opening statement at the BOC command conference, Arroyo congratulated the BOC for exceeding its collection target in July. The BOC collected P21.1 billion, surpassing its P19.9 billion monthly target by P1.2 billion.
The BOC’s July performance brought to P113.13 billion its collections for seven months, which is P11.9 billion short for the seven-month target. Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales expressed confidence that the bureau will be able to deliver the P228 billion revenue collections by December.
“Now we have to find out how we can catch up with the shortfall of January to June which is why we have to really examine the Port of Manila and MICP and if there's time, Naia (Ninoy Aquino International Airport),” Arroyo said.
She said she focused on POM and MICP because they are expected to raise 55 centavos for every P1 to be collected by the BOC and represent 10 percent of total national revenue.
Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said the BOC should sustain its performance in the next five months in order to recover the shortfall.
Teves also said the ports with collection shortfalls have their own action plans in order to recover, such as the auction of seized or forfeited goods, stepping up of efforts in collection, conducting post-entry audits, and making use of the scanners to minimize under-declarations.
Nine of the 15 ports surpassed their individual target for July: San Fernando, P8 million surplus; Manila, P201 million; MICP, P62 million; Naia, P10 million;
Davao, P31 million; Cebu, P4 million; and Legazpi, P200,000. Tax collections from government imports brought in P1.58 billion for July.
The six ports with shortfalls are: Batangas, P655 million; Subic, P20 million; Iloilo, P13 million; Tacloban, P9 million; Surigao, P4 million; and Zamboanga, P2 million. (JMR/Sunnex)
