The Bureau of Internal Revenue collected P924.1 billion in 2011, falling short of its target by 1.7 percent, or P15.9 billion.
Documents from the BIR also showed that last year’s collection was 12.3-percent higher than the P822.6 billion in revenues recorded in 2010.
Despite missing the target for 2011, Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim S. Henares said in a statement that she believed that the BIR was able to put in “a very credible performance.”
“However, there is room for improvement and the (BIR’s) collection performance should improve further once the various reforms planned are put in place and fully implemented,” Henares said.
She explained that the BIR’s collections included revenue from operations as well as non-BIR operations—referring to final withholding taxes on interest payments due on and documentary stamp taxes due from government debt securities that the Bureau of the Treasury issued.
Henares said the BIR collected a total of P890.5 billion from BIR operations, growing 12.9 percent from P788.6 billion in 2010.
Also, the BIR collected P33.7 billion from taxes on debt paper, decreasing by one percent from P34 billion last year.
For this year, the bureau is tasked to raise a total of P1.07 trillion, about a tenth of which it plans to collect from large taxpayers, the Malampaya natural gas project, and the central bank.
The BIR’s 2012 target collection is 13.4-percent higher than the P940-billion goal for last year.
Also, the new target represents 58.7 percent of the P1.82-trillion national budget for this year.
In particular, the BIR’s large taxpayers field operations division is tasked to collect P71.08 billion in excise taxes from taxpayers with at least P1 million in taxable income.
The BIR expects to collect P9.18 billion on income tax from participants in the Malampaya natural gas project as well as P18.98 billion on final withholding taxes levied on the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
This year’s goal is based on the Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing for 2012 which, in turn, is based on the assumption that the Philippine economy will grow this year to P11.01 trillion, or 5.5-percent bigger than the previous year based on constant prices (or removing the effects of inflation).