BIR expected to collect P959 billion next year

MANILA, Philippines - The government expects the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), to collect P959 billion next year, P99 billion higher than this year’s collection target of P860 billion, according to the latest estimates from the interagency Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC).

The Bureau of Customs (BOC), meanwhile, is tasked to collect P343 billion in 2011, or P63 billion more than the P280 billion set for this year, data from the DBCC showed.

The DBCC said the targets are higher next year because of the expected recovery in the economy and the government’s vigorous effort to enhance its tax administration measures.

Earlier the DBCC already revised the economic growth for next year to seven percent to eight percent from 3.8 percent to 4.7 percent.

This year, the economy grew by five percent to six percent.

The Aquino administration hopes to bring the tax effort to 15 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in a year, an improvement from the previous government’s target to bring this to 13 percent of GDP.

The tax effort measures the government’s ability to increase tax collection that is commensurate with the growth of the economy.

In the first quarter of the year, the government’s tax effort improved to 12.3 percent of GDP from the 11.6 percent of GDP recorded in the same period in 2009.