Revenue collection growth seen slowing

Economic managers expect the growth in revenue collection to slightly slow next year to 18.5 percent, from the record 19.2-percent year-on-year increase targeted for this year, Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) figures showed.

The Cabinet-level, inter-agency committee nonetheless sees the share of revenues to the economy inching up to 17.7 percent in 2016, or P2.697 trillion out of the projected 2016 gross domestic product (GDP) worth P15.377 trillion.

The revenue effort goal for 2015 is 16.3 percent. Total revenues are expected to hit P2.275 trillion this year, up from P1.909 trillion in actual collections last year.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) take for next year was programmed to rise by 21 percent to P2.026 trillion, the first time that the country’s biggest tax-collection agency would have to breach the P2-trillion mark.

Next year’s BIR collection target will be equivalent to 13.3 percent of the GDP.

Under the DBCC’s medium-term fiscal program, the BIR’s tax take should further jump to P2.315 trillion in 2017, and P2.558 trillion in 2018.

This year, the BIR was tasked to collect P1.674 trillion in taxes, 25.4-percent higher than the actual 2014 collections of P1.335 trillion. The BIR’s collection goal for 2015 is equivalent to 12 percent of the GDP.

As for the Bureau of Customs (BOC), its 2016 collection target is P498.7 billion, up 14.2 percent from this year’s goal of P436.6 billion.

The BOC’s projected haul for 2016 will be equivalent to 3.3 percent of the GDP, from 3.1 percent in 2015.

For 2017, the BOC should collect P551.4 billion in import duties and taxes, before increasing the target collections to P660.9 billion in 2018.

Total revenues from tax and other fees collected by the BIR, BOC and other agencies are expected to exceed P3 trillion by 2017.