MalacaÑang is leaving it all up to Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales to decide whether to stick to his post or follow the lead of a colleague who resigned after failing to meet his revenue target.
“We leave it to his conscience for him to do what he sees is right,” Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said, reacting to a question on the fate of Morales whose bureau fell 20 percent short of its collection goal from January to September.
Earlier, Internal Revenue Commissioner Sixto Esquivias IV resigned out of delicadeza after failing to meet his collection target. The BIR collected only P557 billion from January to September, or P39.2 billion short of its target for the period.
Customs’ total collections for the nine-month period reached P165.39 billion or about 20 percent below the target of P201.42 billion.
But Morales refuses to give up his post. “I have a job to do and I will do my best until the President tells me otherwise, at which time I will graciously hand over the reins to my successor,” Morales said.
Customs and revenue officials are either rewarded or penalized according to their collection performance, under the attrition law of 2005. But a special board composed of senior Finance officials could grant reprieve to underperforming officials if their collection shortfalls were justified.
Morales said that it was “improbable” to reach the bureau’s last quarter target of P64.72 billion.
“What we can do and will do is to maximize collections and ensure that the revenue leaks are plugged,” Morales said.
Despite the collection shortfall, the Customs is not a “non-performing agency,” Morales said.
The Customs remains an efficient collector of revenue for the national coffers, he said.
“In fact, we have an analysis report from the Department of Finance which shows we are P5.7 billion efficient in our cash collection,” he said.
The collection decline was a result of a 40-percent drop in crude oil importation, which in turn caused the loss of P9.5 billion in revenue, Morales said.
Even Esquivias’ replacement, acting BIR chief Joel Tan-Torres, said the bureau will be “hard pressed in meeting its collection target because of the revenue-eroding effects of legislative measures such as the increased special exemptions, optional standard deductions, and minimum wage tax incentives, among others.
“The revenue collection efforts of the BIR have seriously been impaired. I should also add the effects of a weaker global economy which also lowers the level of taxable economic transactions,” Tan-Torres said.
Tax collections represent three quarters of the government’s total revenue collections.
