By Aubrey Rose A. Inosante, Reporter
THE BUREAU of Customs (BoC) on Tuesday said Executive Order (EO) No. 62, which lowered tariffs on rice, electric vehicles and other commodities, resulted in around P35 billion in foregone revenues.
“If you add up the impact on rice, cars — electric vehicles, and Jet A-1 fuel, the impact was more or less around P35 billion,” Customs Commissioner Bienvenido Y. Rubio told BusinessWorld at the Port of Manila on Tuesday.
The tariff cuts impacted the agency’s ability to meet its revenue target of P939.6 billion last year, falling short by 0.92%.
EO 62, which took effect in July 2024, lowered import tariffs on rice to 15% until 2028 to tame inflation. It also extended the effectivity of lower rates on pork, corn, and mechanically deboned poultry meat.
The same order also extended the zero-tariff policy on electric vehicles (e-vehicles) and parts through 2028, as well as expanded the coverage to other types of e-vehicles.
“But for now, we just hope [to hit the target]. We can’t do anything. There are no tax measures increasing the rate of duties. We are always dependent on the arrival of goods,” he said.
This year, the BoC is targeting to collect P1.06 trillion, 14.28% higher than the actual collection of P931.05 billion in 2024.
Earlier, BoC Assistant Commissioner Vincent Philip C. Maronilla said the agency will focus on other nontraditional revenues to offset the tariff cuts.
“What we’re doing, we have an effective selectivity system. We will make sure that all high-value goods that come out will be taxed with that declaration,” Mr. Rubio said.
Meanwhile, the BoC said it has seized two containers with more than 46,000 vape units from China that were misdeclared as plastic wares.
“Based on information given by our foreign counterpart, two containers were examined by the Port of Manila, and it turned out that the two containers contain vape units. The declaration is plastic wares but when we opened the two containers, 46,600 units of vape were found,” Customs Deputy Commissioner for Enforcement Group Teddy Sandy S. Raval said.
The BoC said the containers had 233 boxes of assorted flavored vape products with a combined value of P53 million, including the unpaid tax and street value.
The Customs bureau will conduct an investigation, and file criminal and administrative cases related to the shipment of the misdeclared vape products.
