|
THE Philippines’ tax effort in the first three months of the year
improved, the Department of Finance said.
Finance Secretary Margarito B. Teves said the
tax effort, defined as the share of taxes to the economy as measured
by the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), improved to 15.05
percent this year, from 14 percent last year and 14.3 percent in
2006.
The government’s tax efficiency likewise
improved to 12.93 percent this year from 12.2 percent last year.
Teves said collections of the Bureaus of
Internal Revenue (BIR) and of Customs amounted to P922.1 billion
last year.
“Our goal now is to return to an upward
trajectory and achieve a 16-percent tax effort or close to
pre-crisis levels by 2010,” he told reporters.
This year, Customs is tasked to collect P254.4
billion and the BIR, P844.95 billion, for a combined P1.099
trillion.
The heads of both agencies however have asked
the Finance department to trim their collection goals, something
Teves is unwilling to do.
Last year, the government’s two main revenue
agencies missed their collection targets, but actual figures
remained higher year-on-year.
BIR collections suffered a 7-percent shortfall
to P712.098 billion against the P765-billion goal, while Customs
turned in P210.6 billion, missing its P228-billion target by P17.4
billion.
Collections however were higher year-on-year by
9 percent for the BIR and 6.2 percent for Customs.
Last year, the government managed to trim its
budget deficit to P9.4 billion, or way below a P63-billion ceiling
on the back of record proceeds from its asset sales. It managed to
raise over P90 billion from its privatization program, which
included the sale of a controlling stake in the country’s
largest—and the world’s second-biggest—geothermal energy
producer, Philippine National Oil Co.-Energy Development Corp.
For this year, the government expects
privatization proceeds to fall to just a third of last year’s
windfall, with over half of the programmed amount to come from the
sale of the Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) property.
Apart from the FTI lot, the government is eyeing
to dispose of its shares in San Miguel Corp. and Manila Electric
Co., as well as another property in Japan.
-- Chino S. Leyco
|
