BIR must beat revenue target to lift economy

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the country’s lead tax agency, needs to beat its revenue target of over P2 trillion this year to help the economy regain its footing and pay for debts amassed during the pandemic.

At the BIR’s 117th anniversary, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III challenged the agency to surpass its collection target of P2.08 trillion for 2021 to bolster the government’s war chest in containing the COVID virus and paying off debts.

“We will continue spending more to strengthen our health system while funding our long-term economic investments and paying down the debt we have incurred to support the national budget at a critical time,” Dominguez said.

“In other words, there is no room for our revenue efforts to fail. To win this battle for our economic recovery, everything depends on the bureau’s success in raising much-needed revenues,” he added.

Calling on BIR officials and workers to emulate champion weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, Dominguez told them to “go for gold” this year in their bid to generate their target revenues. He said the economy banks on the BIR to secure its fiscal health in a time of pandemic-induced decline.

“I urge the agency to not just meet, but exceed its collection targets for this year and beyond,” Dominguez said.

Revenues generated by the government in the first semester grew by more than two percent to P1.49 trillion from P1.45 trillion during the same period last year, surpassing as well the target of P1.42 trillion for the first half set by the Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee.

Taxes collected jumped by over 10 percent to P1.34 trillion as the BIR’s haul grew by at least eight percent to P1.03 trillion.

Based on records from the Bureau of the Treasury, the country’s outstanding debt ballooned to a fresh high of P11.16 trillion as of end-June, the bulk of which consisted of local obligations.

Total debt stock of the country jumped by P2.11 trillion or more than 23 percent to a new all-time high of P11.16 trillion as of end-June from P9.05 trillion a year ago.