THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) Port of Cebu has collected P470.9 million for the first 13 working days of January 2010 as against the P500-million monthly target, despite the decrease in the volume of importation due to the inventory period of business firms.
Assistant Chief of Assessment Florante Ricarte said District Collector Ronie Silvestre is confident of surpassing the January target because they have seven more days to the end of the month.
He said all they have to do is to collect about P4 million a day during the remaining seven working days to get the balance of P29.1 million.
Ricarte said that because the Port of Cebu has a history of collecting above P20 million a per day, they will still have big surplus collections for this month.
“This will be a good start for Collector Silvestre,” Ricarte said.
Silvestre, who came from the Port of Davao, replaced District Collector Ricardo Belmonte last month. Belmonte is now assigned at the Office of the Customs Commissioner.
Silvestre has urged all Customs officials and personnel to focus on their collection effort.
In his recent meeting with the members of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), he promised “trade facilitation” wherein all import entries filed in the morning must be completed before noon as long as all the supporting documents are complete.
The import entries filed after lunch time must be completed before the close of office hours, he said.