MANILA - The Bureau of Customs (BoC) yesterday admitted that it may have missed its collection goal for September on account of lower import volumes.

"The assumptions [for the month of September] may not be realized," BoC Commissioner Napoleon L. Morales said in an interview yesterday. "The imports are still down."

Mr. Morales did not elaborate, saying that the final figures are still being consolidated.

The Customs chief assured that the bureau will continuously run after smugglers to beef up its collections and to meet its P273.3-billion target for this year.

Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collection figures for last month were also unavailable as of yesterday.

Officials had previously said that the weaker demand due to a global economic downturn would put a dent on the country’s imports.

Latest data of the National Statistics Office showed that July imports fell 31.6% year on year to $4.026 billion from $5.88 billion. Lower shipments would mean fewer items were subject to the duties imposed by the BoC.

Lower revenues blamed on an economic downturn was the main reason why the budget shortfall swelled to P210 billion as of August, more than six times the P31.7 billion recorded in the same period last year.

The P210-billion budget gap accounts for more than 96% of the P217.6-billion ceiling set for the first three quarters and 84% of the full-year deficit target of P250 billion.

The BoC collected P147.1 billion as of end-August, lower than the P167.5 billion earned last year.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue, which accounts for about three-fifths of government tax revenues, collected P500.8 billion as of August, down from P532.1 billion last year.

Expectations of lackluster revenues has also forced the government to raise this year’s programmed deficit to P250 billion, equivalent to 3.2% of gross domestic product, from P199.2 billion previously.