BI earns P812-M in 5 months

Posted by The Legal Alien at 2:58 PM

Foreigners entering and staying in the country remitted more than P800 million to the government coffers during the first five months of the year, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said.

Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan disclosed that immigration fees earned by BI from January to May totaled P812.5 million, up by 31-percent or P191.8-million over the 620.7 million the bureau collected in the same period last year.

The income was also P164-million or 25-percent higher than the bureau’s revenue target of P648.3 million for the five-month period.

Libanan noted that the BI is just P659.3-million short of attaining its P1.47 billion target for 2008, adding he is confident that this year will be another banner year for the BI in terms of revenue generation.

The BI posted its highest income ever in 2007 when it registered a take of more than P1.69 billion.

“Chances are very bright that we will not only hit but also exceed our target this year if the present trend in our collections continues,” the BI chief said.

Records showed that of the P812.5 million collected during the five-month period, P573.7 million was earned at the BI main office in Manila while P238.8 million was raised by the different BI field offices and immigration subports in the provinces.

Libanan partly attributed the dramatic rise in revenues to the unabated influx of foreigners into the country and the reforms that he instituted at the BI wherein processing of visa applications have been simplified and expedited.

He said alien arrivals have increased and so are fees that they pay to the government, adding that it is a good sign that more and more foreigners are now complying with the country’s immigration laws.

Libanan promised to vigorously pursue the reform program that he started in the bureau, particularly in re-engineering its systems and procedures and improving and modernizing its services to the transacting public.

He also lauded the rank and file of the bureau for their hard work which contributed to bureau’s impressive collection performance.

Statistics from the immigration office of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) revealed that a total of 1,108,366 foreigners arrived at the premiere port from January to May this year, which is seven-percent higher compared to the 1,032,106 who came in the same period last year.

Early this year, Libanan launched the visa-issuance-made-simple (VIMS) scheme, the BI chief’s flagship project that simplified the requirements and cut the processing time for visa applications at the BI by an average of 58 percent. (BI News)

Source: Bureau of Immigration News

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