MANILA, Philippines — Government revenues continued to bleed in April, with collections from both the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Customs dropping further and missing respective targets as the coronavirus outbreak disrupted the economy.
Data released by the Department of Finance (DOF) on Tuesday showed the tax bureau, which accounts for 78% of the state’s tax collection capacity, collected P71.78 billion in April, sinking 69.8% year-on-year from P237.93 billion.
The DOF attributed the decline to lockdowns imposed to fight the coronavirus outbreak that prompted the BIR to extend the deadlines for the filing and payment of income and other taxes to June.
From January to April, BIR collections stood at P527.41 billion, more than a quarter below what the agency generated in the same period last year. The four-month tally was also 0.19% short of the P1.02 billion that the agency had hoped to raise for the period, data showed.
On the other hand, Customs revenues last month fell 34.27% year-on-year to P33.97 billion. In the first four months, the bureau's collections posted a 7.29-percent annual decline to P179.44 billion, which was also 3.14% below the target of P206.59 billion for the period.
Combined revenues fall
The dismal April collections brought the combined haul of BIR and BOC in April to P105.75 billion, down from P289 billion generated a year ago and lower than the P131 billion goal for the month.
From January to April, the two agencies' combined revenues hit P706.85 billion which is P28.17 billion short of the P735.03 billion target for that period.
The country's economic managers forecast revenues to drop to 13.6% of gross domestic product this year from 16.1% of GDP in 2019 as the coronavirus outbreak lingers. For next year until 2022, economic officials expect revenues to remain weak. If realized, this would slow down the narrowing of the country's budget deficit.