BIR misses end-July collection goal by 8%

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) fell short of its end-July collection target by 8.2%, data from the Department of Finance (DoF) showed.

Preliminary data posted on the DoF’s Facebook page showed that BIR collections as of end-July stood at PHP 1.68 trillion, falling short of its PHP 1.83-trillion collection goal for the period by 8.2%.

The tally as of end-July represents 55.08% of the BIR’s PHP 3.05-trillion collection target for 2024.

Year on year, the BIR’s seven-month revenues jumped by 12.58% from PHP 1.49 trillion in the same period a year ago.

At the same time, the Bureau of Customs (BoC) collections rose by 6% to PHP 536.42 billion during the January-to-July period from PHP 506.49 billion last year.

This accounted for 57.08% of the Customs’ PHP 939.69-billion collection goal for this year.

For the first seven months of the year, revenues from the BIR and BoC — the National Government’s main tax collecting agencies — jumped by 10.89% to PHP 2.22 trillion from PHP 2 trillion a year ago.

A DoF statement said Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto held a BIR and BoC command conference on Aug. 16 to assess the agencies’ performance and plans to meet the targets.

At the event, the DoF said the BIR committed to “bolster its digitalization programs, intensify its tax enforcement, and run after delinquent accounts.”

“The BoC will continue to improve on its assessment and collection of duties and taxes on importation, ensure importer’s compliance with customs’ laws, and strengthen border protection to detect undervalued and misclassified commodities,” the DoF said.

Mr. Recto said the government should boost collections as economic growth is expected to accelerate with the recent rate cut by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the credit rating upgrade by Rating and Investment Information, Inc. (R&I).

Last week, Japan-based R&I upgraded the Philippines’ investment grade rating to “A-” to reflect the country’s strong growth prospects. This was one notch up from the country’s previous rating of “BBB+” assigned in August 2023.

The BSP last week cut interest rates for the first time in nearly four years. The Monetary Board reduced the target reverse repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 6.25% from the over 17-year high of 6.5%. — B.M.D.Cruz