The Bureau of Customs surpassed its collection target by more than a quarter in September this year due to stringent implementation of border control measures.
In a statement, Customs Commissioner Yogi Filemon Ruiz said the bureau, the government’s second largest revenue agency, collected P79.5 billion last month, higher by 28 percent against the P61.9 billion goal.
Ruiz added that the September’s collection increased 38 percent compared with P57.6 billion in the same month last year.
“Commissioner Ruiz continuously drives the Bureau to plug revenue leakages and strengthen the nation’s trade facilitation and revenue collection performance,” Customs said on Wednesday, Oct. 5.
With the “exceptional performance” in September, Ruiz expects Customs offices and collection districts to continue this trend in the remaining months of the year.
In the first nine-months, the Customs collected P638.7 billion, above by 17 percent against its target for the period.
Likewise, the end-September collection improved by 35 percent from P469.8 billion a year earlier.
For 2022, the Customs is tasked to generate P740 billion in revenues. To hit this target, the agency needs to raise P101.3 billion in the fourth-quarter of the year.
Earlier, Ruiz said that curbing smuggling, increasing revenue collections, eradicating corruption, and implementing the full digitization are his priority programs.
Before his designation as Customs chief, Ruiz was the head of the Enforcement and Security Service (ESS) of the bureau since 2017.
As ESS Director, he spearheaded several enforcement projects and handled the operations which contributed to the anti-smuggling campaign of agency.
The new Customs chief also served the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) as Regional Director for seven years in different regions nationwide where he led numerous drug interdiction efforts.