Mighty payment boosts BIR’s 8-month tax take to P1.16T

The Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) tax take jumped by almost a tenth to P1.161 trillion as of end-August partly due to the remittance of settlement money from homegrown cigarette manufacturer Mighty Corp.

In a press conference Friday, BIR Deputy Commissioner Nestor S. Valeroso said the agency needed to collect P668 billion from September to December to meet its target as collections grew 9.7 percent during the first eight months.

To compare, the BIR collected P1.058 trillion from January to August last year.

Valeroso noted of the reforms being pursued at the country’s biggest revenue agency, which he said helped jack up collections.

Also, the Department of Finance had noted that the P3.44-billion initial payment to the government remitted in July by Japan Tobacco International’s (JTI) Philippine unit on behalf of Mighty for the settlement of the latter’s tax deficiency was already included in the BIR’s year-to-date collection figure.

Last Thursday, JTI announced that it had already completed its acquisition of Mighty’s assets, paving the way for the full payment of P30 billion—P25 billion for the tax settlement on top of P5 billion in value-added tax.

This year, the BIR was tasked to collect P1.783 trillion in taxes equivalent to 11 percent of gross domestic product, after economic managers in June slashed the initial target of P1.829 trillion.

For the third and fourth quarters, the BIR’s take had been programmed to hit P434.9 billion and P466.2 billion, respectively.