The Bureau of Customs (BOC) exceeded its nine-month collection goal by 2.5 percent to P660.4 billion or by P16.2 billion instead of only P644.2 billion under the program, the Bureau of the Treasury under Bienvenido Y. Rubio, said.
The over-performance is in stark contrast to the revenue collection of its peer agency the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) whose collection fell 3.89 percent during the period.
The BOC performance helped push the nine-month revenue collection of the national government 2.98 percent higher than program to P2.837 trillion instead of only P2.755 trillion.
But in September, and because the agency had to spend P757 million in tax refund, the BOC posted less than half a percent shortfall in its collection performance to only P7.89 billion instead of P79.3 billion actual collection last year.
This developed even as new regulations allow foreign visitors the privilege of value-added tax (VAT) refund on particular purchases made in the Philippines by next year as part of bigger program to boost tourism and generate more revenue streams for the government.
The VAT refund program is scheduled for collection by next year and hopefully tourism receipts that in 2022 were estimated at $3.68 billion should prove worth the effort.
