Gov’t revenue, spending up

The implementation of the first tax reform package coupled with the rollout of the ambitious infrastructure program helped grow both the government’s revenue collection and expenditures at a faster pace in the first quarter, the head of the Duterte administration’s economic team said.

In a text message to reporters, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said the first-quarter collections of the Bureaus of Internal Revenue and of Customs rose by 16 percent and 24 percent, respectively, year-on-year, citing a report from National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon.

The Bureau of the Treasury is scheduled to release the government’s cash operations report for March later this month. Based on last year’s data, however, the first-quarter collections growth rates posted by the BIR and BOC were faster than the 12 percent and 15 percent, respectively, in the same period last year.

As for government spending, Dominguez said the figure jumped 31 percent year-on-year in the first quarter.

To compare, disbursements as of end-March last year rose by only 4 percent year-on-year.

Dominguez said the strong growth in revenues and expenditures in the first three months meant that the ‘Build, Build, Build” and TRAIN programs were working as planned, referring to the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act.

Signed by President Duterte in December, Republic Act No. 10963 or the TRAIN law since Jan. 1 this year jacked up or slapped new excise taxes on oil, cigarettes, sugary drinks and vehicles to compensate for the restructured personal income tax regime that raised the tax-exempt cap to an annual salary of P250,000.

The TRAIN law is expected to add P82.3 billion to government revenue this year.

Meanwhile, economic managers had said that the “Build, Build, Build” program would help end previous years of underspending on public goods and services.

Under “Build, Build, Build,” the government plans to roll out 75 flagship, “game-changing” projects, with about half targeted for completion during President Duterte’s term. It calls for a total spending of more than P8 trillion on hard and modern infrastructure until 2022 to usher in the “golden age of infrastructure.”