The Department of Finance (DOF) said the Marcos administration is planning to impose new and higher taxes on sugary drinks, motor vehicles and mining to raise additional revenues. In a briefing on Monday, April 24, Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said the government would push for the motor vehicle road user’s tax (MVRUT) reform, higher excise tax on sweetened beverages and new mining fiscal regime. Based on the initial DOF estimates, the three tax measures once passed into laws by 2025, would generate P81.9 billon in additional revenues for the government during their first year of implementation. Broken down, the DOF expects that the revision of the excise tax on sugary drinks could yield P53.7 billion, while the MVRUT would raise P15.8 billion, and P12.4 billion would come from the mining tax. Diokno said these new tax measures are on top of the remaining tax reform packages that were left behind by the Duterte administration. These include the Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act, value-added tax (VAT) on digital service providers, and excise taxes on single-use plastics and pre-mixed alcohol. “The first four measures will have an impact on the 2024 budget and if we are being conservative, we are expecting revenues from the last three tax measures in 2025,” Diokno said. According to the finance chief, the first four measures are already in advance stages and are now deliberated in the Senate. The new three measures, however, are still in the House of Representatives. Under the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) assumptions, revenue projections in the medium term are expected to improve from P3.73 trillion in 2023 to P6.62 trillion in 2028. On Monday, the DBCC kept its gross domestic product (GDP) target of 6.0 percent to 7.0 percent for this year and 6.5 percent to 8.0 percent for 2024 to 2028. The DBCC, however, adjusted upwards its inflation outlook for 2023 on the back of “persisting high prices of food, energy, and transport costs.” According to the inter-agency body tasked to set the government’s macroeconomic assumptions, inflation may average around 5.0 percent to 7.0 percent, higher than the previous assumption of 2.5 percent to 4.5 percent. But the DBCC expects inflation to return to the target range of 2.0 percent to 4.0 percent between 2024 and 2028.