Tuesday, September 23, 2008 Subic nets P3.55-B revenue in 8 months By Anthony Bayarong
SUBIC BAY Freeport -- The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) reported Monday that revenue collections in this freeport for the first eight months of the year have reached P3.55 billion.
Figured released by the SBMA indicated that the two collection agencies, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) here posted a combined increase of more than P251 million or 7.61 percent over last year's January to August revenue.
The surge in tax and duties collection started in June this year when a positive variance of 40.05 percent was recorded, followed by increases of 12.27 percent and 8.36 percent, respectively, in the next two months.
SBMA Administrator Armand Arreza said the positive tally is "reflective of the growth in business operations" by the more than 1,100 investor firms in the Subic Bay Freeport, as well as the increasing number of port users.
"The growing number of business locators in Subic also contributed to the growth in income taxes collected from Freeport employees, which now numbers to almost 82,000," he said.
He added that in the first eight months alone, the 70,408 active workforce in the Subic Freeport rose by 11,321 at the end of 2007.
The highest monthly total in the eight-month period was recorded in July when the BOC collected P393,074,394.64, followed by P367,591,192.46 in June, and P335,330,989.39 in August.
As for the BIR, its income tax collections rose by 6.35 percent in January to August this year, compared to its 2007 performance.
The BIR said it collected a total of P1,014,153,609.10 this year, compared to P953,566,367.74 in January to August 2007.
The bureau's biggest tax haul was made in April when collections reached P210,080,661.86.
The agency also posted a 61.8 percent month-on-month increase in March and 24.36 percent in August, despite negative variances in January (-28.83 percent) and February (-33.01 percent).
