BIR collections up 15% in May but still short of target

MANILA, Philippines - Tax collections by the Bureau of Internal Revenues rose 14.6 percent in May  but still fell short of the goal for the month despite the agency’s intensified campaign against tax cheats.

In a statement, the BIR said it collected P128.27 billion in May, 4.24 percent lower than the P133.95 billion target for the month.

Collections from BIR operations reached P125.46 billion, 14.57 percent higher than what was collected in May  last year. The amount was  3.65 percent  less than the P130.21 billion goal.

Collections from non-BIR operations expanded by 17.42 percent to P2.81 billion. This was P933 million or 24.92 percent lower than the P3.74 billion billion target.

The Regional offices, meanwhile, collected  P42.58 billion, up  20.35 percent than the collections made in May 2013.

While collections by the Large Taxpayers Unit grew 11.82 percent to  P82.89 billion, these were still below the goal set for the month.

Despite falling short of  targets, BIR’s tax collections have  increased every month on the back of aggressive monitoring of taxpayers compliance with the tax code.

 Accounting for about 60 percent of the government’s revenues, the BIR is tasked to collect P1.56 trillion in taxes this year, 20 percent more than its collection in 2013.

 BIR commissioner Kim Henares earlier noted that tax incentives given to certain industries continue to weigh down the government’s tax effort, a closely watched indicator of a country’s credit worthiness.

Tax effort is the ratio between the government’s collection of taxes and import duties and the economy’s gross domestic product.

 While the gross revenues of big corporations have grown, these did not translate to tax revenues for the government because of the tax perks they enjoy.

 Henares said tax incentives given to certain industries must be removed to boost government revenues.

 To address this, she pushed for the immediate passage of the controversial Fiscal Incentive Rationalization bill, which has been pending in Congress for 16 years.

The bill has met strong opposition from various parties as it seeks to remove the tax and duty-free incentives of several industries.