Awash with cash: Gov’t expects revenue to zoom past P4-T

The administration of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is expecting to breach the P4 trillion mark, or some P1 trillion more than its programmed expenditures in 2019, in government income from tax and non-tax sources as a result of a boost in revenue from its comprehensive tax reform program, according to government documents.

Papers from the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) showed that the government had projected a P3.1 trillion collection in total revenue in 2019, P3.5 trillion in 2020, P3.9 trillion in 2021 and P4.4 trillion in 2022, the year Duterte would end his six-year term.

Revenue from taxes alone was projected to reach P2.9 trillion in 2019, P3.3 trillion in 2020, P3.8 trillion in 2021 and P4.2 trillion in 2022, the DBCC documents said.

New revenue measures from tax reform would add to government collections P140.6 billion this year, P195.5 billion next year, P218.7 billion in 2021 and P234.7 billion in 2022.

In 2019, revenue of P113.1 billion would come from the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act being implemented since last year, which included the fuel marking program.

The ongoing estate tax and delinquencies tax amnesties will raise P27.5 billion this year.

Net collections from the TRAIN law would amount to P153.8 billion in 2020, P159.7 billion in 2021 and P162.4 billion by 2022.

Another component of tax reform which would be implemented soon, including higher taxes on cigarettes and alcoholic drinks, was expected to deliver P41.7 billion in additional revenue in 2020, P58.9 billion in 2021 and P72.3 billion in 2022.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR)—the country’s biggest tax-collection agency—had been tasked with generating P2.3 trillion from income and other taxes this year, P2.6 trillion next year, P2.9 trillion in 2021 and P3.3 trillion by 2022.

The corruption-ridden Bureau of Customs was given collection targets of P661 billion in 2019, P731.2 billion in 2020, P813.4 billion in 2021 and P900.4 billion in 2022.

The DBCC projected non-tax revenue to reach P192.2 billion in 2019, P201.9 billion in 2020, P196.9 billion in 2021 and P196.2 billion in 2022.

The projected numbers were expected to gradually increase the share of total revenue to total gross domestic product from 16.4 percent in 2019 to 16.7 percent in 2020, 16.9 percent in 2021 and 17.2 percent in 2022./TSB