by Antonio M. Ajero
IT SEEMS unbelievable but true. While the country’s total collections of the Bureau of Customs decreased, the income of the BOC’s Davao District increased.
This was reported by lawyer Ronie Silvestre, collector of the Davao Customs District, in a power point presentation made before members of the Rotary Club of East Davao at the Marco Polo Hotel last Tuesday.
P1.75 B in 7 months
Silvestre told Rotarians that the customs district, which supervises the ports of Davao and General Santos and sub-ports of Mati, General Santos City and Parang Maguindanao and the fish port of Daliao in Toril, collected a total of P1.75 billion from January to August, 2009, showing an increase of P511,271,446.17, or 41.13 percent, over collections in the same period last year which reached only P1.24 billion. The take was also 23.20 percent (P330 million) more than the district’s target of P1.4 billion for the eight-month period.
In contrast, Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales was reported by national media as saying the year’s (national) collection goal of P273.3 billion is “likely out of reach already.”
RP collections down by 27.1%
Morales said total collections in August alone contracted by 27.1 percent, the single-biggest decline in any month this year.
The commissioner said BOC collected only P18.251 billion in August which was P67.77 billion shy of the target for the month of P25.021 billion.
The income of the Davao district came from both exportation and importation of various products, Silvestre said.
Top 10 imports
The area’s top 10 import products and their values in Philippine currency were cereals (rice, wheat and flour) worth P3.1 billion; fertilizers (urea, potash, ammonium sulphate), P2.5 billion; machinery and mechanical appliances and parts thereof, P1.6 billion; miscellaneous chemical products, P1.3 billion; mineral fuels, mineral oils mineral waxes (LPG, lubricating oil), P1.06 billion; electrical machinery and equipment and parts thereof , P987.5 million; plastics and articles thereof (resin), P814.3 million; ships, boats and floating structures, P751 million; residues and waste from the food industries (soya bean, malt), P728.4 million; and articles of iron or steel, P563 million.
Top 10 exports
On the other hand, Davao District’s top 10 export products, their volumes in kilograms and values in US dollars were fresh bananas (1.1 billion kilos) worth $504.5 million; fresh pineapple, juice and puree ( 87.3 million kgs), $39.2 million; activated carbon (18.8 million kgs), $17.6 million; banana chips (15.3 million kgs), $17.9 million; natural rubber (13.7 million kgs), $11.7 million; desiccated coconut (7.0 million kgs), $8.6 million; gold with silver (2.1 million kgs), $6.69 million; tile (2.9 million kgs), $5.9 million; fresh/frozen tuna (1.1 million kgs), $4.7 million; and coconut oil (6.7 million kgs), $4.7 million.
Reforms in place
Silvestre attributed the district’s strong performance to certain reforms he has introduced upon assumption as district collector a little over a year ago. He enumerated them as: simplified procedures at the assessment and export divisions; re-organized customs personnel at the Davao International Airport to be more responsive to the needs of passengers and importers; dialogued with brokers and exporters associations; required wharfingers and OIC at the Davao Fishport to submit weekly reports on the number of vessels that arrived and departed and the volumes of cargoes they brought in and out of the fishport; expanded the DEA to accommodate increase volume of containers; revived the liquidation and billing division; organized the valuation classification review committee; hosted regular weekly breakfast and staff meetings; visited the sub-ports, airport andfishport and conducted meetings with BOC personnel and stakeholders.
The district collector also initiated the renovation of the customs buildings of the main port and sub-ports, as well as the construction of a multi-purpose hall through a P25-million grant from the Office of the Commissioner. He also held seminars to continue upgrading trades facilitation measures.
