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THE Bureau of Customs has benefited from higher oil
prices after it exceeded its collection goal for last month.
Deputy Commissioner Reynaldo
Umali said preliminary data showed that collections for May reached
P22 billion, or P1 billion higher than the P21 billion target on
higher commodity prices particularly petroleum products.
“I don’t have the final
figure but it looks positive and I guess our collections
particularly from oil will help us get a positive performance for
May. We exceed[ed] the target— probably by P1 billion ahead of the
target,” Umali told reporters.
With the P1-billion surplus, the
Customs has reduced its P2.8 billion shortfall in the first
four-months of the year to P1.8 billion.
“Our collection is affected by
price and exchange rate, so you know the exchange rate is also on
the high side, with respect to the macroeconomic assumption. The
exchange rates plus the high price would really be positive factors
for our collection,” Umali said.
This year, Customs is tasked to
collect P252.5 billion. In the second quarter alone, it should
collect P64.7 billion.
In April, Customs and the Bureau
of Internal Revenue (BIR) collected P21.7 billion and P91.3 billion,
increasing by 26.4 percent and 20.6 percent, respectively, from a
year ago.
--Chino S. Leyco
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