The Bureau of Customs (BoC) said on Saturday it continued to suffer from poor revenue collection which it said has persisted for nine months already.

Data culled from BoC showed that cash collections in the Port of Manila (PoM) and Manila International Container Port (MICP) were still down as of last month and it is expected to decline even during the “ber” months.

“He (Finance Secretary Margarito Teves) already knows as far as volume is concerned, it went down by 37 percent. The value of goods, too, also went down,” Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales said in an interview.

It was reported that imports in the PoM went down by more than 50 percent during the period to just P2.06 billion. As a result of this, cash collections from the PoM were short by P13.83 billion, or more than a third of its target collection of P38.26 billion.

At the MICP, collection from iron and steel imports also declined by 30 percent to P1.64 billion on the same period from the previous P2.36 billion.

Taken aback by the prevailing US-led recession, Morales remains pessimistic that the current trend would change until December, saying that the agency might not meet its annual target collection of P273.3 billion for 2009.

“The shortfall should have been higher if not for the efficiencies that have been implemented,” Morales said. These include the bureau’s efforts to curb the illegal entry of contraband items in the country’s ports nationwide.

The BoC attributed the downfall in revenue collections partly to the decline in the value of imported goods such as motor vehicles, iron and steel products. The value plunged by almost half from January to August compared with last year’s imports, it said.

The BoC cited a significant drop in cash collections at PoM from motor vehicles during that period, decreasing to P2.41 billion from last year’s P4.3 billion, while in MICP it decreased only by 9 percent to P4.41 billion.