The Department of Finance (DOF) announced that the government's two main tax agencies have already achieved over half of their full-year collection target in just the first seven months of the year, primarily fueled by digitalization efforts.
Tax revenues from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Bureau of Customs (BOC) already reached P2.22 trillion, representing 58 percent of the government’s target for this year, based on the report from the DOF.
Preliminary data from the DOF showed that the BIR collected a total of P1.68 trillion from January to July, 13 percent higher compared to the P1.5 trillion collected in the same period last year.
This represents 59 percent of the agency’s target of P2.85 trillion goal for the full year 2024.
Meanwhile, revenues from the BOC increased by six percent, collecting P536.42 billion from P506.49 billion last year. The agency is now at 57 percent of its P939 billion target for the year.
This year, the Marcos administration aims to collect P3.8 trillion from tax revenues, which is higher by 12 percent than the actual tax revenue collection of P3.4 trillion last year.
“The BIR will ramp-up the implementation of its digitalization programs, intensify its tax enforcement programs, and run after delinquent accounts,” DOF Secretary Ralph G. Recto said during his meeting with the BIR and BOC on Friday.
The BIR missed its target by three percent for the first semester of this year, collecting P1.36 trillion instead of the P1.403 trillion set by the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) for the period.
Despite this, BIR Commissioner Romeo D. Lumagui Jr. said that he is confident that the recently imposed one percent withholding tax on online sellers will boost the agency’s revenue collection this year, noting that the collections from the taxes could reach “billions”.
“The BOC will continue to improve on its assessment and collection of duties and taxes on importation, ensure importer's compliance with customs' laws, and strengthen border protection to detect undervalued and misclassified commodities,” Recto also said.
The finance chief also said that the government will see an increase in its revenue collections following the recent reduction of the interest rate by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) by 25 basis points and the upgrade of the Philippines’ credit rating to A- by R&I.