APD | Revenue collections up during first two years of Duterte Administration

By APD writer Melo M. Acuña

MANILA, May 5 (APD) – The Department of Finance said the collection performance of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) averaged 96.7 percent during the first two years under the Duterte government compared to an average of 94.5 percent during the full five years of the previous leadership.

In a statement released today, the Department of Finance (DOF) said the Bureau of Internal Revenue said the top revenue agency’s tax effort under the Aquino administration did not go beyond 11 percent, “but rose to 11.27 percent in 2017 and 11.26 percent in 2018 under President Rodrigo Duterte.”

The BIR achieved 97.35 percent (P1.78 trillion of P1.83 trillion) collection target for 2017 and 96.04 percent (P1.96 trillion of P2.04 trillion) for 2018 compared to only 86.12 percent (P1.44 trillion or P1.67 trillion) in 2015 with a tax effort of 10.82 percent.

The DOF said this 2015 goal attainment was significantly lower than the previous year’s 91.65 percent (P1.33 trillion of P1.45 trillion), with the tax effort of 10.56 percent.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) reported that BIR posted 13 percent year-on-year growth in the first quarter.

BIR’s total revenue from January to March 2019 reached P468.2 billion, an 11 percent or P45.1 billion increment over last year’s Q1 achievement, according to the Bureau of Treasury.

Tax reform measures led to the strong performance of revenue collection agencies on the Duterte watch, with total revenues growing 15.2 percent from P2.473 trillion in 2017 to P2.850 trillion in 2018, the first year of implementation of the controversial Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said tax revenues grew 14 percent from 2018 to 2018, P2.250 trillion to P2.565 trillion with the 2018 tax effort of 14.7 percent of GDP said to be the highest in 20 years.

He also reported the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio continued its downward trajectory under the Duterte administration despite the ambitious infrastructure program with national government debt in relation to GDP at 42.1 percent in 2017, and falling further to 41.9 percent in 2018.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)