The Bureau of Immigration said it still managed to collect nearly P5.9 billion in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said last year’s total revenue from immigration fees was P5.88 billion, 36.1-percent less than the record income of P9.3 billion that the bureau posted in 2019.
“We anticipated our revenues to decrease due to the pandemic,” said Morente.
“With more foreign nationals going out of the country than going in, we were able to collect less revenue from visa applications.”
Morente said the transactions in the bureau were suspended for more than two months after the government declared a lockdown in March last year, thus causing the bureau’s revenue collections to nosedive.
Morente, however, says the bureau expects its revenue collection to gradually return to normal this year as the country awaits the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine and once international travel restrictions are gradually lifted.
According to BI Finance Chief Judith Ferrera, the bureau was poised to post another record high income in 2020 if the pandemic did not occur.
She said the bureau started the year on a very positive note as its collections in January and February amounted to P1.8 billion, but revenues dropped to P480 million in March with the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine in the entire Luzon.