ZAMBOANGA CITY — The Bureau of Customs Zamboanga City district office reported that it has exceeded its target revenue collection set by the BoC central office by at least 25 percent.

BoC Zamboanga City district collector Segundo Barte Jr. disclosed that the agency has already collected P9,652,616,185.04 billion over the target goal collection of P8 billion for this year.

He added that this is the fifth year that the BoC Zamboanga City has exceeded its revenue collection before the closing of the calendar year.

According to Barte, revenues are levied on the importation of petroleum oil products and liquefied petroleum products top the list in revenue collection for the district.

The BoC district office covers the entire Zamboanga peninsula or Region 9 including  Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi provinces, the three island provinces under the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

"Good planning and initiatives on how to generate collection for the bureau is the main ingredient for meeting and surpassing the target collection of BoC for the district," Barte said.

"The best legacy that I could leave for BoC Zamboanga City district office is I was able to improve the collection of the district from million to billion in a span of two years only," he added.

The district collector is also optimistic that it will improve its revenue collection next year with the entry of the Regional Container Lines M/V Danu Bhum, an international shipping line, which is scheduled to make her maiden voyage  to Singapore on 8 December.

Barte was assigned to this city in 2018 and successfully improved the collection of the bureau from P354 million to P8 billion this year.

Zamboanga City district office records showed that in 2018 the target collection of the district was only P354 million but was able to collect P288 million. In 2019 its target collection was only P451 million was able to collect P618 million. In 2020 BoC central office asked Barte to collect P3.8 billion, and he collected P5 billion, last year his target collection was pegged at P534 billion and  he again made a new record when he collected P6.2 billion.