The government’s two main tax agencies have surpassed their respective collection goals last year, which the economic managers lowered in the wake of the coronavirus-induced economic crisis.
Preliminary data from the Department of Finance (DOF) showed that the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Bureau of Custom have collected P2.43 trillion in January to December last year, 11 percent above their revised combined target of P2.187 trillion.
The two tax agencies, however, were 25 percent below compared with their pre-pandemic goal of P3.255 trillion. They also registered a 13 percent contraction in collections from P2.805 trillion in the previous year.
In 2020, the BIR exceeded its revised target by 12 percent to P1.899 trillion against P1.685 trillion. However, the agency’s actual revenue haul was also 12 lower percent compared with P2.175 trillion in the previous year.
Customs, meanwhile, raised P533.88 in January to December 2020, above by six percent compared with its P501.33 billion reduced goal. But the actual collection is weaker by 15 percent against P630.31 billion in 2019.
Citing a preliminary report based on cash inflows to the Bureau of the Treasury, National Treasury Rosalia V. de Leon said that total revenues in 2020 have already reached P2.84 trillion.
The total revenues include non-tax income, such as collections from dividends, fees, privatization efforts, and Treasury income.
BIR Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa said in a separate report that the bureau’s excise tax collections amounted to P289.98 billion in 2020, surpassing its target of P285.77 billion by 1.5 percent.
Collections from “sin” products led the pack, with excise taxes from tobacco products totaling P148.45 billion, followed by alcohol products with P75.94 billion, which both exceeded the BIR-set targets by 6.71 percent and 22.74 percent, respectively.
The excise tax collection target for tobacco products was P139.12 billion and for alcohol products, P61.87 billion, in 2020.
Excise taxes from sweetened beverages of P30.56 billion also exceeded the P28.54 billion target of the BIR for 2020, the report said.
The BIR’s excise tax collections from minerals, automobiles, and cosmetic procedures were also above target in 2020.
Meanwhile, the BOC collected a total of P145.85 billion in duties and taxes from 12.72 billion kilograms (kg) of petroleum products in 2020, preliminary data show.
Including coal and coal products, the total BOC revenues from oil products amounted to P171.07 billion.
Taxes and duties from non-oil commodities such as motor vehicles, telecommunications equipment and food products, accounted for P342.42 billion of the BOC’s total collections for 2020.