The Bureau of Customs (BoC) reported on Monday that its revenue collection continued to go down with a shortfall of P42.86 billion as a result of the economic slowdown.

Data culled from the BoC showed that it only collected P183.94 billion against the programmed collection of P226.80 billion from January to October this year, an indication that the assumptions made by the Department of Finance (DoF) were not met.

“Again, revenue collections were down because of the continued sluggish movement of international trade for the period which is beyond my control,” Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales said in an interview.

Based on the same report, the BoC still has a deficit of P34.25 billion even it’s compared to the agency’s cash collections of P218.19 billion in 2008.

The BoC insisted that its shortfall was caused by the lower volume and value of goods such as oil products and steel from January to October. “The actual value of total oil imports per barrel was P39.01 million as against a programmed 73.99 million,” the BoC report said.

It added that revenue gains, such as the higher tariff rates, the peso-dollar exchange rate, and increasing price of crude per barrel, were not able to offset the steep slowdown in cargo volume.

“What we can do and will do is to maximize collections and ensure that the revenue leaks are plugged,” Morales said, adding that the BoC is doing its job and should not be labeled as a “non-performing agency.”

Customs’ efficiency, according to Morales, is more than R5 billion based on the analysis report from DoF.

“We could have recorded a much bigger shortfall than was actually posted during the period had it not been for our administrative efforts implemented to improve collection,” he said.