Cebu City – The Port of Cebu exceeded its revenue target for May by 5%, collecting P2.395 billion or a surplus of P114 million, district collector Elvira Cruz reported.

Cruz made the revelation as Customs personnel in Cebu seized last week smuggled motor vehicles worth nearly P2.5 million. She said alert Customs officials discovered the attempted smuggling when they conducted a surprise inspection on the shipments from the US and Japan that were declared “personal effects and household goods.”

Seized were two bicycles, four motorcycles, and an excavator.

Meanwhile, across the Bureau of Customs (BOC), Commissioner Isidro Lapena reported that his agency recorded collection surplus last month with 16 out of the 17 ports in the positive deviations. Lapena said the BOC’s aggregate collection for the May reached P52.601 billion, or a 3.9% revenue surplus of P1.973 billion against the target of P50.628 billion.

The amount is also higher compared to last year’s collection by 32% or P12.763 billion that totaled P39.838 billion during the same month.

Lapena said the increasing revenue surplus of the BOC is attributed to the enhanced revenue collection performance of the bureau’s 16 district ports.

“The improved revenue collection performance of the BOC is also attributed to the increase in the volume of imports by 3.3 % in May. The value of imports grew by 17.8 %. I will say this is because of the continuing application of correct valuation and tariff classification of goods,” the commissioner explained.

Only the Manila International Container Port (MICP) failed to reach its target of P15.611 billion and collected only P14.199 billion for the month.

But the Port of Manila (POM) posted P8.083 billion with 6.2% or P472 million surplus; Port of Batangas (POB), P14.454 billion, 23.3% or P2.733 billion surplus; Port of Limay (POL), P3.462 billion, 2.4% or P381 million surplus; Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), P3.155 billion, 5.2 % or P155 million surplus; Port of Davao (POD), P1.936 billion, 19.2 % or P311 million surplus; Port of Cagayan de Oro (PCDO), P1.866 billion, 30.5 % or P436 million surplus; Port of Iloilo (POI), P323 million, 17.8 % or P49 million surplus.

Port of San Fernando (PSF), P298 million, 7 % or P21 million surplus; Port of Clark (POCl), P173 million, 30.3 % or P40 million surplus; Port of Zamboanga (POZ), P58 million, 142.2 % or P34 million surplus; Port of Tacloban (POT), P47 million, 102 % or P24 million in surplus; Port of Legazpi (POLg), P25 million, 4 % or P1 million surplus; Port of Aparri (POA), P16 million, 213.6 % or P11 million surplus; and the Port of Surigao (POSg), P2.2 million, 7.7 % or P200,000 surplus.

The BOC’s Financial Service said that the increase in foreign exchange and oil price, as well as the growth in the importation of motor vehicles, crude oil, foodstuff, iron, and steel and petroleum products, contributed to the May collection.

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