(CNN Philippines) — The Bureau of Customs (BoC) registered a 6.6% rise in total revenue collections during the first quarter of 2015, compared to the same period last year.
In a statement released Monday (April 20), the bureau noted that it collected about P92.2 billion from January to March, in contrast to the P86.5 billion during the first three months of 2014.
At P87.3 billion, cash collections alone outnumbered 2014’s total first quarter collections. On the other hand, non-cash collections — which the agency defines as import collections of government agencies paid through credits to the BoC’s account — stood at P4.9 billion over last year’s zero collections.
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However, the total first quarter collection this year still falls short of the bureau’s P103.3 billion goal by a margin of 10.7%.
The BoC pointed to a 53% decline in oil prices from the first three months of 2014 to the same period in 2015 as the main factor in the slowed collection growth. Although oil import volumes rose by 19.5%, it said that the sharp oil price drop and shifts in the import mix towards higher crude oil imports — at the expense of higher value finished products — led to a 38% drop in collections from oil products.
The fall was offset by a 24% increase in collections from non-oil products. In particular the bureau said that “imports of motor vehicles, food, iron and steel, machinery, and chemical compounds all showed very strong growth.” The BoC managed to collect P77.2 billion from the category during the first three months of the year in contrast to the P62.3 billion during the 2014’s first quarter.
“Developments in global oil markets are obviously out of our control,” said customs commissioner John Sevilla in the same statement.
“We are confident that collections from imports apart from oil will remain robust; however, it is difficult to imagine a scenario under which oil prices will recover sufficiently to restore collection growth to last year’s levels of 20% and above.”
