Government revenue collection grows to P2.13 trillion in H1

MANILA, Philippines — The government has collected P2.13 trillion in revenues as of the first half of the year, allowing it to be on track to hitting its collection goal for 2024 amid digitization efforts and plugging of tax leakages.

During the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines-San Miguel Corp. economic forum on Monday, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said preliminary data showed that collections from January to June reached P2.13 trillion.

This is almost 15 percent higher than the P1.86 trillion in revenues in the same period last year.

“This is more or less half of what we intend to collect for the entire year. So we seem to be on track,” Recto said.

“We hope that continues and that we are able to sustainably collect all these revenues for the entire year,” he added.

Based on the approved Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee fiscal program, total revenues should reach P4.27 trillion.

Broken down, tax revenues improved by 8.8 percent to P1.81 trillion with both the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Bureau of Customs (BOC) posting increases.

The BIR raked in P1.34 trillion, up by 10 percent while BOC generated P454.1 billion as of the first half.

Non-tax revenues also surged by 64.5 percent to hit P316.52 billion.

“There were shortfalls on both the BIR and BOC but we are able to make up for non-tax revenues,” Recto said.

“The most important issue is that we intend to fund the budget. We don’t want to increase the deficit and no additional borrowing. We have a fiscal plan to follow,” he said.

Moving forward, the Finance chief expects both the BIR and the BOC to improve on their ability to collect more.

In particular, the DOF is anticipating the full digitalization of BOC over the next two years.

Meanwhile, over the medium term, the economic team is targeting a 10.3 percent average annual growth in total revenues to hit P6.25 trillion by the end of the Marcos administration’s term in 2028.

“While no new tax proposals are on the table, refined revenue reforms await Congressional approval,” Recto said.

These reforms promise fairness and efficiency, ensuring that they do not translate to unnecessary burdens to Filipino consumers and taxpayers,” he said.

The reforms include the last package of the tax reform program, value added tax on digital service providers, excise tax on single use plastics, mining fiscal regime, motor vehicles road user’s tax and the amendments to the incentives measure of the government.

Upon passage, such reforms could additionally inject an average of P42 billion annually into state coffers starting next year.

Recto said maximizing non-tax revenues to increase collections and ensure sustainable funding for priority projects is also being pushed.