REVENUE TARGET. Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Romeo Lumagui Jr., Finance Secretary Ralph Recto and Bureau of Customs Commissioner Bienvenido Rubio (from left) meet to discuss the revenue target for the year at the Department of Finance office in Manila on May 15, 2024. The BIR is tasked to collect PHP3.05 trillion while the BOC aims to collect PHP1 trillion. (Photo courtesy of DOF)
MANILA – The Department of Finance (DOF) said the government is sticking to its revenue target for this year but no new inflation-inducing tax measures will be introduced.
"We're keeping the targets. [We] will make [a] review [by] end of June," Finance Secretary Ralph Recto told reporters in a Viber message on Monday.
The total revenue collection target for 2024 is expected to reach PHP4.3 trillion.
The bulk of the tax revenues amounting to PHP3.05 trillion will be generated by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), while the Bureau of Customs (BOC) is expected to collect PHP1 trillion.
The remainder will come from non-tax revenues.
Preliminary data as of the end of April showed that the BIR has already collected PHP912.9 billion, up by 16.3 percent from the same period last year, while the BOC collections grew by 6.3 percent to PHP295.2 billion.
Recto convened officials from the BIR and the BOC on May 15 to assess their collection performance and strategize on areas where the DOF can offer support.
During the meeting, Recto said that with the majority of consumers shifting to the e-commerce market, there is a need for enhanced digitalization efforts and aligning practices with countries with advanced tax collection systems such as South Korea, Singapore, and Japan.
DOF chief economist Domini Velasquez, meanwhile, said that for this year, the DOF's intent is not to impose new taxes.
"No new inflation inducing tax measures. That non-tax revenue is actually a short-term solution as mentioned. So, we were expecting that this year, I think the intent is not to impose new taxes," Velasquez said during the San Miguel Corporation-Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines business journalism seminar held in Baguio City over the weekend.
“If you look at the program, most of that would be coming from increasing revenues of BIR and that’s very realistic,” he added.
Velasquez said the government will maximize potential revenues from non-traditional sources in the short term.
"So, focusing particularly on non-tax revenues. So, that's going to be your dividends. That's going to be your privatization. And that's going to be some of tweaking of fees and charges. And then, of course, reforms to enhance revenue mobilization," she said.
Velasquez said the DOF is looking at how to improve collections from e-commerce.
"That's one of the things that we're looking at. How to improve tax collections on that. I think there are initial stages in talking to e-commerce platforms on how to improve taxes already," said Velasquez. (PNA)
