BIR April tax take falls short of target

MANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of Internal Revenue collected P116.22 billion in April—falling short of its monthly target for the second time in a row.

The BIR on Tuesday said in a statement that the April collection was 5.4 percent, or P6.6 billion, lower than the P122.8-billion target set for that month.

Still, last month’s yield was 12.4 percent, or P12.83 billion, higher than the P103.39 billion collected in April 2011.

In the first four months of the year, the bureau generated a total of P345.26 billion in revenue. It was 2.9 percent below the quarterly target set at P355.47 billion.

Even then, the four-month collection was 14 percent, or P42.32 billion, higher than the P302.94 billion posted in the same period of 2011.

“The regional offices in April collected P39.18 billion, or 20.2 percent, more than the collection made in April 2011,” the BIR said.

Meanwhile, “collection by the Large Taxpayer Service [division] amounted to P74.25 billion, which was P5.36 billion or 7.8 percent more” than the year-ago figure, the agency bureau.

The BIR was referring to its sources of cash revenue. It also counts the availment of tax credits as part of its collection.

For the whole of 2012, the BIR has been tasked to raise P1.066 trillion—13.4 percent higher than the P940-billion goal of last year.

This year’s goal is about two-thirds of the overall revenue target of P1.5 trillion—14.2 percent of gross domestic product—that Malacañang had set for 2012.

Assuming that the government would spend some P1.8 trillion this year, revenue agencies, including, the BIR, are hard pressed to help keep the budget deficit within the target ceiling set at P279 billion.

Data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed that as of the first quarter, the government has incurred a deficit of P33.91 billion.

This was about 41 percent of the P82.81 billion that the government intended to spend on top of the national budget for that period.

Also, the three-month deficit was 29 percent more than the P26.2 billion recorded in the same period of 2011.