Low oil prices and limited port activities during Manila’s hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation pulled down Customs collections by 6.9 percent in November from a year ago.
The Bureau of Customs said collections in November fell to P29.1 billion from P31.2 billion in the same period last year. It also fell 27.4 percent short of the P40-billion target for the month.
It was the eighth month this year that the agency missed its target, with only the months of March and June showing on-target collections.
The agency said the additional holidays declared in November to give way to the smooth hosting of Apec Summit in Manila had affected port operations and customs revenues.
“The bureau also notes that despite expediting customs services several weeks before the Apec meetings, limited port activity had severely affected revenues,” the agency said.
It said the truck ban, road closures and traffic rerouting schemes within the ports’ perimeters further pulled down the daily average collection from P2 billion to as low as P50 million.
“It may also be highlighted that special non-working holidays imposed in Metro Manila on Nov. 18 and 19 resulted in closed banks, further limiting business transactions at the ports,” Customs said.
Collection was also pulled down by the 7.2-percent decrease in value of merchandise imports in November, despite the increase in the total volume of shipments.
Non-oil imports grew 19.4 percent in terms of volume, but fell 0.8 percent in terms of value.
Oil imports also dropped 10.2 percent in terms of volume and 47.2 percent in terms of value.
Total oil collection in November decreased by 37.9 percent to P4.2 billion from P6.8 billion in the same month last year.
Customs said total collection in the first 11 months also went down by 0.4 percent to P329.8 billion from a year earlier.
The 11-month figure was also P67.37 billion or 16.96 percent short of the P397.173-billion target for the period.
The Bureau of Customs is the second largest revenue-collecting agency of the government, next to the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
Government revenues in October slightly increased 7 percent year-on-year to P163 billion but fell 13 percent short of the P187.61 programmed collection for the month.
October collections brought the 10-month tally to P1.76 trillion, or a 12 percent increase from P1.57 trillion in the same period last year. However, the figure also missed the P1.86 trillion target collection for the first 10 months.