BIR, Customs collections up in first quarter

MANILA, Philippines — The national government’s tax revenue, as well as disbursements all recorded double digit growth in the first quarter, the Department of Finance (DOF) reported yesterday.

According to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, the collections of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) improved 16 percent and 24 percent, respectively, in the first three months from a year ago.

Disbursements, meanwhile, jumped 31 percent over the same period in 2017. This is faster than the forecast made by Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, who earlier said spending may have grown less than 20 percent during the quarter.

Based on computations, BIR collection in the first quarter likely hit P429.66 billion from P370.4 billion in the same period in 2017. The BOC’s collection may have also reached P129.08 billion compared to last year’s P104.1 billion.

Expenditures during the three-month period also likely reached P806.17 billion, up from the P615.4 billion posted in the same period in 2017.

Dominguez attributed the double-digit growth in revenue to the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act, while the surge in disbursements was driven by the administration’s massive infrastructure program.

“Our Build Build Build and TRAIN programs are working as planned,” Dominguez said.

The TRAIN law, which was enacted effective Jan. 1, 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.

According to DOF estimates, the law is expected to generate an additional P89.9 billion in revenue for the year.

Meanwhile, the Build Build Build program seeks to address the gaps in the country’s infrastructure and would involve up to P9 trillion in investments over the medium term.

For 2018, alone, the government has allocated about P1.1 trillion for infrastructure projects, equivalent to around 6.3 percent of the gross domestic product.

Earlier, Diokno said expenditures are expected to grow faster as government agencies pick up the pace of project implementation. The increase in government salaries, as brought about by the third tranche of Salary Standardization Law in January, will also drive the increase, he said.