COLLECTIONS of the government’s top revenue-generating agencies dipped further as of mid-April, due to economic disruptions brought about by the community quarantine measures imposed to suppress the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The Department of Finance (DOF) said in a statement over the weekend the Bureaus of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Customs (BOC) generated a total of P641.62 billion from January 1 to April 17, 40 percent or P431.45 billion short of the target of P1.073 trillion for that period.
The amount is also P229.56 billion or 26.3 percent lower than the P871.19 billion collected in the same period last year.
For the first two weeks of April, the combined BOC and BIR collections totaled to only P40.57 billion, which is P219.88 billion lower than the amount collected for the same period last year.
It is also P275.37 billion below the combined target of the two revenue-generating agencies of P315.95 billion for that period.
The revenues of the BIR alone from January to mid-April this year fell by 45.3 percent versus target, and dived 32 percent from the year ago level.
While the BIR traditionally has significant collections during this time of the year due to the April 15 deadline on the filing and payment of the annual tax returns, the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) implemented in Luzon and other parts of the country has prompted the agency to extend the deadlines for the filing and payment of income and other taxes to next month, as movement of taxpayers are limited by the anti-COVID-19 measures.
Preliminary data submitted by the BIR to the DOF show that from January 1 to April 17, the BIR only collected P480.64 billion, P398.54 billion short of the target of P879.18 billion, and P226.15 billion below what it collected for the same period last year.
The BIR, which accounts for 78 percent of the state’s tax collection capacity, reported even more discouraging numbers for the April 1 to 17 period, the DOF said, with collections reaching only P25.01 billion, or just 8.66 percent of its target of P288.75 billion for the entire month.
Compared to the April 2019 actual collection of P237.93 billion, the amount collected from April 1 to 17 is 89.5 percent short.
The BIR has not yet announced whether it would issue new adjustments to the deadlines after President Duterte extended the ECQ anew in Metro Manila and other provinces to May 15 and relaxed the quarantine in other parts of the country.
Excise tax collections of the BIR across all product categories also posted large losses, the DOF said, with actual payments amounting to only P76.47 billion for the January 1 to April 15 period, which is P37.76 billion or 33 percent lower than the 2019 figure of P114.23 billion.
The BIR’s excise tax collection target for this period was P161.84 billion.
Excise tax collections from tobacco totaled only P33.19 billion, which is P24.56 billion or 42.5 percent below last year’s P57.75 billion collection.
The January 1 to April 15 excise tax collection from alcohol products reached only P17.85 billion, which is P6.24 billion or 26 percent lower than the collection of P24.09 billion for the same period in 2019.
As for the BOC, the DOF said actual collections dipped further to P160.98 billion for the same period, which is P32.91 billion or 17 percent short of the target of P193.89 billion for January to mid-April.
The collection of the BOC as of mid-April is also P3.42 billion or 2.08 percent lower than the P164.4 billion collected in the same period last year.
From April 1 to 15 alone, the second largest revenue-generating agency collected P15.57 billion, which is P6.96 billion or 30.89 percent below its collection of P22.53 billion in the same period last year.
It is also P11.63 billion or 42.76 percent lower than the two-week target of P27.2 billion.
Carlos Dominguez, DOF secretary, earlier assured the Filipinos that even with the significant decline in both bureaus’ revenue collections, the country remains “financially able” to meet the unexpected challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.
