Immigration bureau may exceed 2008 revenue target

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Immigration is nearing its revenue target for 2008, and is poised to register a new record high income, according to BI Commissioner Marcelino Libanan. In a statement released on Saturday, Libanan said that from January to end of August the bureau had already collected P1.43 billion in immigration fees. The figure is less than P51 million of the agency's P1.47 billion revenue collection target for the year, and is up y 27 percent from the P1.12 billion that the agency had earned from the same period last year. The bureau earned P1.69 billion in 2007. "Year 2008 will be another banner year for the Bureau of Immigration not only in terms of revenue collection, but also in the matter of improving our services to the public," Libanan said. The immigration chief said the bureau only need to raise P200 million to duplicate its record high-income for 2007, which he said could be attained before month's end. "There is no more stopping the push for reforms that we initiated to strengthen and sustain the confidence of foreigners in our country's immigration services," Libanan said. BI finance chief, Elvira Presado said bulk of the revenue for the first eight months of 2008 came from the bureau's main office in Intramuros, Manila which collected P973 million. The rest was remitted by field and district offices. - GMANews.TV