Non-tax revenues to boost collection

HIGHER non-tax revenues are expected to push total collections beyond the P4.27-trillion goal this year, a Cabinet official said, but tax revenues are seen missing its target.

“If the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) fall short of its target, we make it up with non-tax revenue,” Finance Secretary Ralph Recto told reporters.

According to the Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing (BESF), the government is aiming to end the year with P4.27 trillion in revenue collections, with tax collections accounting for the bulk at P4.07 trillion while non-tax revenues at P198.5 billion only.

Of the total tax revenues, the BIR is set to collect P3.01 trillion, while the Customs Bureau is expected to generate almost P1 trillion.

While both fall short of the target, Recto said it still represents a double-digit growth year-on-year.

“I think they’ll [BIR] end up at P2.86 trillion. And you know, it’s still a double-digit growth. The reasons for this are, first, remember the BESF — ideally, all the tax measures should have been passed. They weren’t passed. So naturally, we collect taxes based on the measures that were not enacted. And, of course, there’s a lower GDP (gross domestic product) growth rate,” Recto said.

“On the BOC, their target was roughly P1 trillion. They’ll end up this year with a little less than P940 billion. So, below the target, fortunately, we made it up,” he added.

The Finance chief said that total revenue collection for this is projected to reach P4.42 trillion, exceeding the target. This would bring revenues to 16.7 percent of GDP, the highest level since 1997.

He added that they have secured additional resources for the 2024 budget without imposing new taxes.

This was achieved through aggressive privatization of public assets, increasing government-owned and -controlled corporations’ (GOCCs) dividend remittance from 50 percent to 75 percent, and reallocating idle or excess GOCC funds.

As of end-October, the government’s budget balance reversed to a surplus after five straight months of shortfall as revenues outpaced spending.

The P6.3-billion surplus — from revenues of P473.1 billion and expenditures of P466.8 billion — was a turnaround from September’s P273.3 billion deficit and last year’s P34.4 billion.

The BIR accounted for P2.42 trillion, with P325.5 billion collected in October. The amounts were 13.49 percent and 18.62 percent higher year-on-year, respectively.

The BoC, meanwhile, saw October collections rise by 11.5 percent to P86.9 billion. Its year-to-date tally was 5.32 percent higher at P777.6 billion.

As for nontax revenues, Treasury collections dropped P14.5 billion from P16.8 billion due to lower income realized from investments. This brought the bureau’s ten-month income to P224.7 billion, higher than the P174.8 billion logged during the same period last year.

Other offices generated nontax revenues of P43.7 billion in October, up from P14.3 billion a year ago. Year-to-date, other offices earned P314.6 billion, also up from the year-earlier P152.2 billion.