PNoy advisers cut Customs revenue goals, says Biazon

The Aquino administration’s economic planners slashed the Bureau of Customs (BoC) collection goals by P2 billion this year and P50 billion next year, Customs Commissioner Rozzano Rufino Biazon revealed on Wednesday. Biazon said the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) set P278 billion as the new 2011 BoC target, down from P280 billion while the revised 2012 goal is P315 billion, which used to be P365.1 billion. The BoC had a P24.24 billion shortfall from January to August this year. Two weeks ago, Biazon said he would try to convince the Aquino administration’s economic planners to change the way they set revenue targets for his agency by using a yet-to-be-crafted ‘realistic formula.’ “There are many factors involved in hitting revenue targets such as international trade, peso fluctuation, leakages from smuggling and corruption. I will go through the process of appealing for a more realistic formula in goal setting," Biazon said back then. Among the factors, which the bureau said caused collections to fall, are free trade agreements and tariff adjustments to cushion the impact of rising prices in the international commodities markets. BoC data also showed that about 2,000 products which used to be big revenue sources now come in duty-free or at reduced tariff levels. — ELR, GMA News