Customs chief says 2008 goal 'impossible' due to strong peso

An official of the Bureau of Customs on Wednesday said its 2008 revenue goal of P254.5 billion is unrealistic because of the continuing strength of the peso against the US dollar. Instead, Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales said the collections goal should be set below 2007's P228.2-billion target.

“With the continued peso appreciation, it will be next to impossible to meet this current goal," the Customs chief said. The government's collection goals are set by the Development and Budget Coordination Committee, an inter-agency body.

Last year, Customs fell short of its P228.2-billion collection target by P17.3 billion after it only managed to collect P210.9 billion. This year’s collection target of P254.5 billion is 20.7 percent or P43.6 billion higher than last year’s actual collections.

The government is looking at the possibility of reducing the collection target of the Customs by to P240.2 billion instead of the original goal of P254.5 billion due to lower import growth and revised foreign exchange assumptions.

This, after the Cabinet-level DBCC approved a revised foreign exchange forecast of P42 to P45 versus $1 from the original forecast of P46 to P48 per $1 and at the same time reduced the import growth forecast to nine percent instead of 11 percent.

Morales said DBCC's revised forex assumption for this year may even be unrealistic considering most banks anticipate the peso to further appreciate to P35 per $1.

According to him, the only factor that can jack up Customs' collections is the rise in crude oil prices to an average of $68 per barrel in 2007 from $27.89 per barrel in 2000. However, Morales clarified that collections from oil imports only account for about 30 percent of the agency’s total revenues. - GMANews.TV

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