The Development Budget Coordinating Committee (DBCC), inter-agency body tasked to set the country’s macroeconomic targets, has lowered the Bureau of Customs (BoC)’s 2012 revenue collection goal by P18 billion due to projected slower import growth.
Finance Assistant Secretary Ma. Teresa Habitan said the BoC collection, which accounts for a fifth of government revenue, was reduced by nearly 5 percent to P347 billion from the original target of P365 billion.
The economic managers are expecting the country’s imports to slow this year and that will affect Customs collection performance, she said.
Yesterday the DBCC downgraded the country’s imports forecast this year to $75.9 billion from the initial $79.4 billion.
The BoC was unable to reach its target on most months last year, except in January and March.
In 2011, Customs collected only P263.85 billion, 17 percent lower than the P320-billion goal set by the economic managers.
Meanwhile, Habitan said the DBCC has maintained its assigned collection target for the government’s main tax agency, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
Habitan said the economic managers are pushing the BIR for much better efficiency in collecting taxes.
The BIR’s collection, which accounts for roughly 70 percent of total tax revenues, is projected to reach a record P1.066 trillion this year, higher by 13 percent compared with its P940-billion target for 2011.
BIR Commissioner Kim Henares earlier said that she was optimistic that her agency would meet its trillion-peso collection goal this year.
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