Customs closes in on ₱1T in collections after nine months

Bureau of Customs collects ₱757.4 billion in the first nine months of 2026, beating its target by 1.2% and moving closer to its ₱1-trillion full-year goal.

The Bureau of Customs has collected ₱757.4 billion in the first nine months of 2026, putting the agency within ₱242.6 billion of its ₱1-trillion full-year revenue goal.

That may sound like a number meant for government spreadsheets, but Customs collections are part of the revenue the government can use to fund public services and programs. The more revenue the government actually collects, the more resources it has available for spending without having to rely as heavily on other sources of funds.

Customs said September collections reached ₱93.339 billion, beating its ₱89.184-billion target by 4.7% and rising 16.3% from ₱76.684 billion a year earlier.

For the first nine months, collections were already 1.2% above the agency’s ₱748.494-billion target and 7.9% higher than the ₱701.952 billion collected during the same period last year.

The increase also points to money being captured by the government that could otherwise be lost through underassessment, smuggling and other forms of revenue leakage. The BOC said it has strengthened monitoring, valuation and assessment, enforcement, and customs modernization as part of its collection efforts.

Now comes the tougher part. Customs has three months left to collect another ₱242.6 billion and turn its current pace into a ₱1-trillion year. If it gets there, the significance goes beyond hitting a government target. It means another trillion pesos in revenue collected for the national government in a year when every peso available for public spending counts.

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