The government exceeded its revenue collection target last year on the back of higher tax and non-tax revenues, data from the Department of Finance (DOF) showed.
Preliminary data released by the DOF Monday showed that as of Jan. 16, total revenue collection amounted to PHP4.40 trillion, exceeding the Development Budget Coordination Committee’s PHP4.38 trillion full-year 2024 revenue outlook.
Broken down, tax revenues reached PHP2.83 trillion.
Of the total tax revenues, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collected PHP2.86 trillion.
In a separate briefing Monday, BIR Commissioner Romeo Lumagui Jr. said the collection last year was up by 13 percent from the PHP2.51 trillion in revenue collections in 2023.
Lumagui said the BIR focused on fearless and aggressive enforcement activities, excellent taxpayer service, integrity and professionalism of the institution and its employees, and digitalization to increase collections.
He said that with good governance and enforcement activities against ghost receipts and illicit trade of cigarettes and vape products, the BIR has billions in surplus collection for 2024.
This means that the national government will have to borrow less from creditors to maintain its 2025 budget.
Data from the DOF, meanwhile, showed that the Bureau of Customs (BOC) collected PHP916 billion, while tax revenues from other offices amounted to PHP32.38 billion.
The emerging non-tax revenues amounted to PHP625.9 billion.
“First of all, let me commend both the BIR and the BOC for more or less hitting their targets last year. I think we had the highest collection last year. I think we achieved a 16.5 percent revenue to GDP (gross domestic product), the highest in 27 years,” Finance Sec. Ralph Recto said.
“Moving forward, I expect the BIR also to hit the targets for 2025. The challenge will be a little more for BOC because we increased their target for next year. So we want them to grow double-digit also for next year. So I think that’s where the challenge is,” he added.
The Department of Budget and Management’s Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing showed that the BIR has been tasked to collect PHP3.2 trillion this year, while it is PHP1.06 trillion for the BOC.
Recto, however, said that if ever the BOC has a shortfall, the DOF will make sure that deficit will not go up.
“And assuming they have a shortfall, assuming they don’t hit the double-digit, we’re preparing what we can do to ensure that we still collect the revenue so that we don’t increase the deficit. By way of non-tax revenue and other privatization proceeds. So this year for sure we will still adopt the policy of a dividend rate of 75 percent,” Recto said. (Anna Leah Gonzales, PNA)
