Bureau of Internal Revenue, Customs collections up in 2 months

MANILA, Philippines — Collections of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) rose by double digits in the first two months of the year following the implementation of the new tax reform law, the Department of Finance (DOF) said yesterday.

In a speech during the 28th Inter-Pacific Bar Association Annual Meeting and Conference in Taguig City, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the government is collecting “more revenues than expected” since the passage of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act.

“In the first two months of this year since the TRAIN was passed, we are actually collecting more revenues than expected,” he said.

 The BIR generated P280.6 billion in revenues during the reference period, 10.8 percent higher than the P253.3 billion in the same period last year.

 BIR data also showed this is 17.55 percent higher than its collection target for the two-month period set at P238.71 billion.

On the other hand, tax collections by the BOC grew 26.5 percent to P85.63 billion from P66.8 billion in the same period in 2017.

This is, however, 2.81 percent lower than the BOC’s P88.10 billion target for the period.

Republic Act 10963 or the TRAIN Act took effect on Jan. 1. The law aims to simplify the country’s tax system by lowering personal income tax rates.

It also seeks to adjust excise taxes of fuel, automobile, coal and sugar-sweetened beverages, and expand the tax base by removing value-added tax exemptions.

Based on DOF estimates, the law is expected to generate an additional P89.9 billion revenues for the year.

With the increased collections, Dominguez said the government is confident it would be able to adequately fund its ambitious infrastructure program, dubbed as Build Build Build.

The finance chief further said the DOF expects the passage of the rest of the other tax reform measures under its Comprehensive Tax Reform Program this year.

This includes Package 2, which seeks to reduce corporate income taxes to match regional benchmarks. This also involves the rationalization of incentives to make them performance-based, targeted, time-bound and transparent.

 According to Dominguez, the proposed measure is among the reforms being pushed by the government to level the playing field and improve the ease of doing business in the country.

 Other reforms include cutting red tape, eradicating corruption and deploying information technology.

 He said attracting investments is one of the strategies needed to be pursued by the government to sustain high economic growth rate, as it would create job opportunities for millions of young Filipinos.

 In 2017, net inflow of foreign direct investments in the Philippines hit an all time high of $10 billion, up 21.4 percent from a year ago.

 Gross domestic product, meanwhile, grew 6.6 percent in the fourth quarter, leading to a full-year growth of 6.7 percent, making the Philippines one of the fastest growing economies in the region.