Even as revenue-raising general tax amnesty and online gambling tax measures are being studied by the Marcos administration for enactment this year, Fitch Solutions’ unit BMI has maintained its forecast that the government will exceed its widened fiscal deficit of 5.5 percent of economic output. 

Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Ralph stated during the Economic Journalists’ Association of the Philippines (EJAP) Economic Forum 2025 on Monday, Aug. 11., that new taxes remain off the table, but a general tax amnesty and online gambling tax measures are now being crafted.

“While no new tax proposals are on the table, refined measures—such as the rationalization of the mining fiscal regime—are awaiting enactment. We are also studying the possibility of enacting general tax amnesty and online gambling tax laws,” Recto said.

These measures, particularly general tax amnesty, will be pushed for legislation this year, Recto said. However, these would still need approval from the President or the Cabinet.

Clear revenue collection targets for the planned tax amnesty are still unavailable, Recto said, but it will cover taxes handled by the country’s main tax agencies—the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

Recto clarified that the amnesty measure is different from the bill previously passed by Congress but later vetoed by former President Rodrigo Duterte, noting that this is a “simple” general tax amnesty bill.

To recall, an estate tax amnesty was implemented earlier this year. Recto noted growing public calls for its extension, which he said will be included in the planned general tax amnesty.

Joey Sarte Salceda, chair at the Institute for Risk and Strategic Studies Inc. (Salceda Research), noted in a message to Manila Bulletin that the last general tax amnesty was in 2007, through Republic Act (RA) No. 9480 under former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“That generated around ₱5.9 billion in taxes or around 0.6 percent of total tax collections that year. Prior to that, there was Presidential Decree (PD) No. 1840 in 1981 under former President Ferdinand E. Marcos, and Executive Order (EO) No. 41 in 1986 under former President Cory Aquino,” Salceda said.

Meanwhile, BMI has maintained its projection that the government’s fiscal deficit will widen to six percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by year-end. This follows the recent move of the economic managers to tweak its fiscal shortfall projection to 5.5 percent from 5.3 percent previously. Last year’s fiscal deficit stood at 5.7 percent.

“This signals a clear slowdown in fiscal consolidation efforts and reinforces our view that the government faces growing constraints in reducing its budget shortfall over the medium term,” BMI said.

“A key risk to this outlook is escalating US [United States] trade protectionism,” BMI said, noting that the full implementation of 19-percent tariffs on all Philippine exports “would further dampen external demand and add to existing structural weaknesses. In turn, this increases pressure on the government to provide economic support.”

In 2019, Duterte signed RA 11213, which established the tax amnesty programs for delinquencies and estate taxes. However, he vetoed the proposed general tax amnesty, citing the need to first lift bank secrecy for tax purposes and enable automatic exchange of information.

According to Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) data from 2022, the tax amnesty program under the Duterte administration generated at least ₱14.5 billion in collections.

The country’s first tax amnesty on delinquencies, implemented in 2019, covered all national taxes—including capital gains tax, documentary stamp tax (DST), donor’s tax, excise tax, income tax, percentage tax, 12-percent value-added tax (VAT), and withholding tax—for taxable years up to 2017.

Under this program, cases with final and executory delinquencies or tax assessments were subject to an amnesty rate of 40 percent of the basic tax assessed. For cases still under final judgment in the courts, a higher amnesty rate of 50 percent applied. Pending criminal cases involving tax evasion and other tax-related offenses—whether or not assessments had been issued—were eligible for amnesty at a rate of 60 percent.

However, withholding agents who had failed to remit withheld taxes to the BIR were required to pay 100 percent of the basic tax assessed.

RA 11213 also provided estate tax amnesty for estates of individuals who died on or before Dec. 31, 2017. In such cases, the estate tax was reduced to a flat rate of six percent of the decedent’s total net estate at the time of death.

This estate tax amnesty, which offered heirs relief from unpaid estate taxes, was implemented over a two-year period beginning in 2019.