Customs employees to get P1.4M incentive each if…

MANILA, Philippines – Customs chief Isidro Lapeña said custom employees – the janitors, included – will receive an incentive of P1.4 million each should the agency exceed its revenue collection target by the year’s end.

Lapeña explained on Wednesday, March 7, that the Bureau of Customs (BOC) had exceeded its revenue target for February. They hit P43.674 billion that month, which was P2 billion higher than the projected revenue collection.

Considering that February is traditionally the most difficult month collection-wise – because companies are doing their inventories at this time – Lapeña said the succeeding months should even be easier.

He computed: If there’s a surplus of P2 billion every month, then the BOC would have a total of P24 billion for the entire 2018. He finally placed his “optimistic projection” at a conservative P20 billion.

He cited the lateral attrition law that allows agencies to allocate 20% of surpluses as bonus to employees. Twenty percent of P20 billion is P4 billion, which, when “equally distributed to every employee of the bureau, from the commissioner down to the janitors,” will mean each of the 3,000 getting P1.4 million. 

“We will have about P1.4 million for each personnel of the Bureau of Customs – from the janitor to the commissioner. Pare-parehas kami (it will be the same for everyone). Because what I’m saying, this (hitting the target) has to be done by all of us,” Lapeña said.

The granting of incentive reward will have to approved by the Department of Finance. The customs chief recalled that in 2006, the bureau also applied for the reward, and this was approved and distributed two years later, in 2008. – Rappler.com