Despite meeting its first-half revenue target, Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner Romeo Lumagui Jr. believes that hitting the “too high” ₱3.2-trillion full-year goal could be an uphill battle if regulators move to ban online gambling, a measure that may significantly dent tax collections.

“In case online gaming [or gambling] gets banned, there should be an adjustment [in revenue targets]. If there's no adjustment in the targets, and you will ban all of these, the target will definitely not be achieved,” Lumagui told reporters on the sidelines of an Aug. 5 event regarding a fight against illicit trade in Southeast Asia.

“Of course, it’s a policy issue that ultimately they have to decide whether to ban or be more strict about it. But as far as BIR is concerned, we give data, and the revenues that will be lost will be heavy. So that’s what they need to think about,” Lumagui said.

For the second half of 2025, Lumagui still expects it to be “challenging.” However, the BIR chief is banking on the newly enacted law on taxing foreign digital service providers (DSPs).

“Hopefully, that will help in our collection targets and we will also continue our enforcement in taxpayer service to make sure we reach our collection target for this year,” Lumagui said.

Lumagui admitted the agency is “limited” on manpower, prompting it to seek help from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), and Philippine National Police (PNP). He credited their support for the recent string of arrests.

Apart from the setbacks in terms of manpower, Lumagui also stressed it would be challenging to surpass second-half targets because the full-year goal remains “really high.” While first-half performance was strong, he noted the target is still steep relative to actual gross domestic product (GDP).

During the six-month period, the collection of the country’s top tax-collection agency soared to ₱1.55 trillion, up 14.1 percent from a year ago. According to the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr), this was mainly driven by increases in corporate income tax (CIT), value-added tax (VAT), and personal income tax (PIT).

“Additional sources of higher revenue came from increased excise tax collections on tobacco, including electronic cigarettes, through the [BIR’s] continued efforts to intensify the crackdown on the illicit tobacco trade and the strict implementation of the mandatory excise tax stamps on vapor products,” the BTr said.