THE Port of Manila has surpassed its P5.6-billion revenue target for the month of January by more than P2 billion, District Collector Rhea Gregorio said on Saturday.
“The PoM surpassed its January target of P5.68 billion with a total cash collection of P5.8 billion, a surplus of 2.53 percent. It’s been a while since PoM reached or surpassed its target, a great way to start the year,” said Gregorio.
Aside from the increased volume of importation last month, Gregorio also attributed the surplus to the good performance and continuing effort of department heads and subports under her office to collect more revenues.
“All the collecting offices and subports under Port of Manila worked together to achieve our target for January, led by Harbor Center which had the most surplus from their bulk and break bulk collections,” Gregorio said.
“Other factors would be an increased coordination and efficiency from all offices within the Port of Manila, and of course the confidence and support from the Office of the Commissioner,” she added.
Gregorio was the head of the Customs Interim Customs Accreditation and Registration Unit and Compliance Monitoring Unit before she was designated as district collector of the Port of Manila, one of the biggest and so-called “billionaires ports” of the bureau, last December.
“As I have mentioned when I assumed my post last December, it should be a combination of internal and external factors coming together, this means the whole of Port of Manila working hard as a team and with the right trade volumes coming in and economic atmosphere present,” she said.
PoM’s performance also contributed to the overall surplus gained by the agency.
The bureau collected P35.7 billion, up by P236 million as against its assigned target.
The bureau’s Financial Service disclosed the January collection was comparatively 115 percent higher than the cash collection of P31.08 billion in 2016.
“The amount in revenue collection for January 2017 could hit an outstanding sum in the final financial and revenue collection reports that will be released by the National Treasury soon,” it stated.
Customs officials said the agency had regained the trust and confidence of stakeholders, thus, its collections continued to rise in line with its fiscal and administrative policies.