Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said the government is sticking to its revenue collection target for now, adding that he is hopeful that the double-digit growth in the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) collections will be sustained until the end of the year.
“No need to revise it yet. So far, we’re on target,” Recto said when asked if there’s a need to cut the revenue collection goal following the revision of the country’s economic growth target.
“Our revenue collection today seems to be on target,” he added.
According to the Development Budget Coordination Committee Medium-Term Fiscal Program, the total revenue collection target for this year is expected to reach P4.3 trillion.
The bulk of the tax revenues amounting to P3.05 trillion will be generated by the BIR, while the Bureau of Customs is expected to collect close to P1 trillion.
The BIR collected P591.8 billion in the first quarter of 2024, 17.15 percent higher than the P505.2 billion it generated in the same period in 2023.
On the other hand, the BOC raised P218.9 billion during the same period, outperforming last year’s collections of P213.8 billion by 2.35 percent.
Recto, however, said he will soon meet with BIR and BOC officials to discuss the revenue targets this year and all the way to 2028.
“But the most important thing is this year because we are already funding the budget this year. So far, they’re doing pretty good. That means if you follow that growth rate, there’s no need to borrow more,” he said.
“So far, we’re hitting the targets. The revenue growth from last year to this year should be about 14 percent if I recall so we’re doing 17 so that’s more than enough. So we hope that continues all the way up to the end of the year,” he added.
Recto also cited the need to look at ways to better tax the e-commerce sector.
“I’ve seen data that roughly one-fourth of all purchases today are done through e-commerce. So now we have to be able to collect those taxes in e-commerce. It’s harder to collect from them. So that will be part of our strategy and part of our meeting, how do we get to collect those taxes that we’re using based on transactions done through e-commerce,” he said.
“It’s important that we’re able to catch up with the private sector with how consumers behave and that we’re able to collect taxes and revenues [from these] digital platforms,” Recto added.*PNA
