Subic Records P7.16-B Revenue Collections

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT, Philippines - Combined cash collections generated by the Bureau of Customs (BoC) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in this free port and remitted to the National Treasury reached a total of P7.16 billion last year, the biggest remittance record for the Subic Bay Freeport since 1998.

The 2011 revenue figure, which is composed of remittances from the BoC and the BIR here, represents an increase of 7.2 per cent, or P480.16 million, over the 2010 combined cash collection of P6.68 billion.

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman Roberto Garcia said that Subic's revenue generation performance continues its upswing up to the present, "indicating continuing growth and sustainability."

Garcia pointed out that from P5.28 billion in 2008, remittances by the Subic Bay Freeport grew to P5.6 billion in 2009, P6.68 billion in 2010, and then P7.16 billion in 2011.

"There's slight, but nevertheless constant growth in the past few years, and we're happy with that," Garcia said.

"But we're aiming for better figures this year," he said.

According to year-end records submitted to the SBMA, the BoC office here said it collected a total of P6.05 billion in 2011. This meant an increase of 21.7 per cent, or P1.08 billion, over its P4.97-billion cash collection in 2010.

The BoC's income here were derived from duties and taxes from ship calls, transshipment operations, and the importation of various products, including oil, motor vehicles, and other general merchandise.

As early as October 2011, cash collection by the Bureau reached P5.05 billion, already surpassing the previous year's year-end posting of P4.97 billion.

BoC records further showed that the Bureau posted cash collections exceeding P600 million for five months, namely: September, wherein it came up with P687.91 million, June with P661.48 million, April with P623.02 million, December with P618.59 million, and October with P603.14 million.

However, while cash collections increased by 21.7 per cent, the Bureau missed its P7.44-billion collection target by 18.66 per cent.

Apart from this, the BoC also reported non-cash collections of P669.57 million that were derived from government-to-government transactions.

Meanwhile, BIR cash collections reached P1.11 billion in 2011, a figure which represented a 35.13 per cent decrease from the 2010 collection of P1.71 billion.

Despite this dip in its year-on-year figure, the Subic revenue district generated a P392.29-million surplus, or 54.9 per cent, over its P714.6-million goal.

BIR records showed that from January to December 2011, cash collections exceeding P100 million were recorded in three months: P169.96 million in April, P113.7 million in August, and P102.22 million in November.