BIR collections up by 8.01% in August

Kim Henares official photo (www.bir.gov)

MANILA — Despite falling short of its target, the collections of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) increased by 8.01 percent this August.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the bureau shared that its collection of P127.56 billion last month is higher than the amount they collected in the same period of last year which is at P118.11.

However, the amount collected is still short of the P142.5-billion target for the month of August.

According to its Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares said that the primary reason for this is the truck ban implementation in Manila.

“The performance of the BIR was affected by the low income tax payments received for the second quarter of taxable year 2014, which can be attributed to lower corporate income of large corporations which could also be brought about by the port congestion experienced during the past months,” said Henares.

Henares said during an earlier interview in July that the tax collection in the first half of the year had been “very difficult.” She added that the challenges faced by various industries and businesses have affected their revenues.

“The first-quarter GDP [gross domestic product] went down from 7.7 percent [last year] to 5.7 percent. Government spending slowed down because of the DAP [Disbursement Acceleration Program] ruling, then the port collections also slowed down because of the truck ban,” Henares noted.

It can be recalled that recently the Supreme Court ruled that the DAP was unconstitutional. The DAP is a package that aims to fast-track public spending in order to prompt economic growth. Likewise the daytime truck ban in Manila that affects the movement of goods in and out of the country also slowed down the local economy.

“If the economy slows down, businesses’ revenues slow down, so tax payments also go down,” Henares pointed out.

Last August, revenue upped by 7.59 percent or P125.02 billion year on year. On the other hand, non-BIR operations collections increase by P2.55 billion.

In the same period, regional offices chipped in P42.09 billion, whereas large taxpayers service increased by 6.26 percent year on year or P82.93 billion.

For 2014, the BIR aims to collect a total of P1.456 trillion.