THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) remains determined to hit its full-year revenue target of P958.714 billion despite declining collections and the lingering rice import ban, according to its top official.
On the sidelines of the Senate plenary debate on the 2026 national budget, Customs Commissioner Ariel F. Nepomuceno said the BOC is ‘not yet giving up’ in meeting its revenue target. ‘If we concede already, it might worsen.’
Nepomuceno said the BOC is searching for other sources of revenue, such as petroleum products, that can compensate for expected losses amid the extension of the rice import ban.
This comes after the BOC recorded a 4.1- percent year-on-year drop in its collections in October 2025, generating P83.322 billion from P86.885 billion a year ago, dampened by lower import volumes and declining global oil prices.
Nepomuceno told BusinessMirror earlier that the rice import ban also contributed to the decline, with rice tariffs typically contributing P3 billion to P4 billion for the government every month.
With the hefty P958.714-billion target, Nepomuceno said the BOC will ask the Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) to adjust their collection goal this year. (See: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2025/11/13/boc-seeks-revised-revenue-goal-after-collections-plunge/).
Data from the BOC-Revenue Collection Monitoring Group showed that rice tariff collections fell to P13.373 trillion from January to September this year.
This was down by 51.73 percent from the P27.705 billion it raised in the same period of last year.
The BOC’s nine-month collection this year is the final count of rice tariff collections since the rice importation ban, which began on September 15, will be extended until the end of the year.
It should be noted that the tariff rate on rice was reduced to 15 percent from 35 percent last June 20, 2024, under Executive Order 62, before the rice import ban took effect.
The reduced rice tariff rate has already weighed down the BOC’s collections since last year, as revenue losses have reached P29.451 billion from July 2024 to June 2025.
‘We will do our best to hit the targets despite the extended rice importation ban. We will pursue having a more efficient collection effort,’ Nepomuceno said.