MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Customs (BOC) surpassed its target collection of P13.11 billion in February, preliminary data showed.

As of February 23, the agency's collection amounted to P15.07 billion, almost P2 billion higher than the goal. This covered 17 of the 19 days that the bureau could collect throughout its districts.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the government's main revenue-generating arm, meanwhile, has yet release last month's collection figure.

Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran earlier said the country's tax collection agencies were on track in attaining the P266.28 billion revenue target for the first 3 months of 2010 as the economy improves.

"We are exceeding the target. We are doing fine on the revenue side," Beltran said.

Government data revealed that in January, collections of both the BIR and BOC reached P79.2 billion, 13% higher than their P70.09-billion target.

During the month, the BIR topped its P56-billion revenue goal by 10%, raking in P61.67 billion.

Customs, on the other hand, collected P17.6 billion, almost 25% more than its target of P14.09 billion.

For the entire 2010, the BIR is tasked to collect P830 billion, while the BOC must generate P278 billion.

The government is pushing for higher revenue collection this year to plug its budget deficit, which hit a record high of P298.5 billion or 3.9% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009.

Finance Margarito Teves said the deficit would only be trimmed down to 3.5% of GDP in 2010.

The global economic crisis, back-to-back killer typhoons, and passage of several laws covering incentives have been blamed for the fall in government revenues.