Revenues generated by the national government in 2020 is estimated to amount to P2.84 trillion, which is slightly below the revised revenue projection for the year, according to preliminary figures released by the Department of Finance (DOF) in a statement yesterday.
The DOF said according to Rosalia de Leon, national treasurer, a preliminary report based on cash inflows to the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed total revenues for 2020 have already reached P2.84 trillion.
The total revenues include non-tax collections such as collections from dividends, fees, privatization efforts and BTr income.
“The preliminary figures on revenues collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Bureau of Customs (BOC) are still subject to reconciliation with BTr data,” the DOF said.
The Development Budget Coordination Committee’s (DBCC) most recent revenue projection for the year however, as of the December meeting, is P2.85 trillion.
The projected figure has been revised several times as the government took into account the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy. At the start of the said year, months before lockdown measures were put in place to address the spread of the virus, the government expected collections of P3.49 trillion.
The preliminary figure of P2.84 trillion is also 9.5 percent below the 2019 revenues of P3.138 trillion.
The DBCC said for 2021 and 2022, revenues are seen to amount to P2.88 trillion and P3.31 trillion, respectively.
Meanwhile, the DOF also said the BIR and BOC have both surpassed their respective collection goals set by the DBCC for 2020, collecting a combined amount of P2.43 trillion.
A report by the DOF’s revenue operations group said the collection of the two agencies is 11.27 percent over the P2.187 trillion revised target set by the DBCC in July last year.
However, it fell below the previous year’s figure of P2.81 trillion in 2019 by 13.39 percent, as tax collections were affected by the temporary closure, and permanent for some, of a significant number of businesses during the enhanced community quarantine period, which is the strictest level of lockdown.
For 2020, the BIR collected P1.899 trillion, while the BOC reported collections of P533.88 billion, Dakila Elteen Napao, DOF assistant secretary, said.
Napao said the BIR’s 2020 collection was 12.68 percent in excess of the revised DBCC target of P1.685 trillion for the year. In 2019, the BIR generated P2.175 trillion.
The BOC’s collection, meanwhile, was 6.49 percent more than the revised DBCC goal of P501.33 billion, he added. In the previous year, the agency’s revenue was P630.3 billion.
The original combined collection target for the two agencies was P3.255 trillion for 2020 that was set by the DBCC in December 2019.
The target was revised in May 2020 and again in July 2020 to reflect the economic realities resulting from the pandemic-driven global growth slump.
Arnel Guballa, BIR deputy commissioner, said tentative data show the bureau’s excise tax collections amounted to P289.98 billion in 2020, surpassing its target of P285.77 billion for the year by 1.47 percent.
Guballa said collections from “sin” products led the pack, with excise taxes from tobacco products totaling P148.45 billion in 2020, followed by alcohol products with P75.94 billion, which both exceeded the BIR-set targets by 6.71 percent and 22.74 percent, respectively.
The excise tax collection target in 2020 for tobacco products was P139.12 billion and for alcohol products, P61.87 billion.
Excise taxes from sweetened beverages of P30.56 billion also exceeded the P28.54 billion target of the BIR for 2020, Guballa said.
The DOF said the BIR’s excise tax collections from minerals, automobiles and cosmetic procedures were also above target in 2020.
The BOC collected a total of P145.85 billion in duties and taxes from 12.72 billion kilograms of petroleum products in 2020, preliminary data show.
Including coal and coal products, the DOF said total BOC revenues from oil products amounted to P171.07 billion.
Lastly, the DOF said taxes and duties from non-oil commodities such as motor vehicles, telecommunications equipment and food products accounted for P342.42 billion of the BOC’s total collections for 2020.
