Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Figures from the Bureau of Customs (BOC) revealed that total revenue collections for the first trimester of 2015 reached P120.38 billion — an increase of P3.12 billion or 2.6%, compared to the P117.27 billion during the same period in 2014.
Despite the growth, the total revenue collections still fell 14% short of the BOC’s P140.71 billion target for the first four months of the year.
Likewise, the BOC said that it raised P28.14 billion in April — that’s 24% below target, and 8.5% lower than the P30.76 billion it collected in the same month last year.
The agency said that collections from non-oil products grew by 5% year-on-year from P21.62 billion in April 2014 to P22.7 billion April 2015. The rise was driven by the increase in both the volume and value of such imports by 12% and 2.6%, respectively.
March was the only bright spot during the first four months. The BOC collected P35.66 billion pesos during that month, or 1.8% more than its target and 21.6% higher than what it collected in March 2014.
The BOC is the government’s second biggest source of revenue compared to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr). For the first three months of 2015, the agency collected P92.30 billion, in contrast to the BIR’s P307.10 billion and the BTr’s P37.9 billion.
The government collected P470.5 billion in revenue during the first quarter of 2015, accounting for an 18% year-on-year revenue growth compared to the same period last year.
The figure represents a 60% budget deficit, according to the Department of Finance. Nevertheless, it is smaller than the 66% deficit during the first three months of 2014.
“I am encouraged looking at the ever improving trend lines being posted by our revenue generating agencies,” Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said late last month.
“I expect the trend to curve up even more as we continue pursuing our legislative agenda on boosting tax administration capacity and modernizing the Bureau of Customs.”
