PH eyes P6-T borrowing to support economic recovery

MANILA – The government is keen on borrowing PHP3 trillion each in 2020 and 2021 to help boost funds for economic recovery, even as the main revenue-generating agencies have been posting upticks in their collections.

In a Viber message, National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said the borrowing program will still be implemented even with the positive revenue performances of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

Economic managers said the increased borrowing for this and next year will be used to finance programs targeted to address the impact of the pandemic.

On Tuesday, the BOC said it exceeded its PHP48.4-billion collection goal for October 2020 after revenues reached PHP50.9 billion.

It said last October is the fifth consecutive month that the agency met its downwardly-revised revenue goals.

Collection goals of both the BOC and the BIR for this year have been slashed after economic managers noted the impact of the pandemic on domestic output.

The BIR has yet to report its October 2020 performance.

It collected PHP118.63 billion last September, higher than its PHP117.59-billion goal.

This collection, however, has declined compared to the PHP150.48 billion it collected in September last year.

As of the July 28, 2020 ad referendum meeting of the inter-agency Development Budget Coordination Committee, the BIR was tasked to collect PHP1.68 trillion this year while BOC’s target was PHP506.15 billion.