HOUSE Committee on Ways and Means Chairman and Albay 2nd district Rep. Jose Ma. Clemente “Joey” S. Salceda has hailed the country’s tax collection agencies, particularly the Bureau of Customs (BOC), for doing what he described as a “very good” performance.
“Before we start our committee hearing for today, please allow me to congratulate the tax collection agencies for very good revenue-collection performance. Hindi lang good ha: very good,” Salceda told his panel last Wednesday.
Salceda congratulated the BOC, led by its commissioner, Bienvenido Y. Rubio, for its strong performance for the month of April when the agency raked in P68.274 billion.
He congratulated the agency “for once again exceeding its revenue collection targets for the month of April,” which according to the House tax panel chief, exceeded the BOC’s target of P68.199 billion.
“This suggests that despite uncertain global conditions, our tax collection agencies are exceeding expectations and are working hard to earn the lifeblood of Philippine government,” noted Salceda.
It turned out that April 28 was also the day that the BOC broke its record for biggest single-day collection. On that day, the customs bureau collected P7.510 billion.
This was P1.436 billion or 23.64 percent higher than the previous single-day record of P6.074 billion, which was achieved on October 14, 2022.
Rubio said that for the first four months of 2023, the BOC has already collected P281.902 billion, which is 6.29 percent or P16.682 billion higher than its target of P265.220 billion.
The figure is also 10.89 percent higher than last year’s first four-month collection of P254.226 billion.
Meanwhile, Salceda also gave “props” to the Bureau of Internal Revenue, which according to him expects to collect a record P301 billion in April alone or 25 percent higher than the P239.6 billion the BIR collected last year.
Image credits: Klodien | Dreamstime.com