BIR collections up 14.5% to P1.057 T

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) saw a 14.5-percent rise in revenue collections last year to P1.057 trillion, according to official data released by the Department of Finance (DOF) yesterday.

This was the first time the BIR breached the P1-trillion level. But the figure was still short of the agency’s P1.066-trillion collection target for 2012.

The country’s main revenue generating agency collected P1.016 trillion from BIR operations, up 14.2 percent from 2011 figure.   Revenues from non-BIR operations, on the other hand, amounted to P 40.95 billion or an increase of 21.68 percent from the previous year.

In December 2012 alone, the BIR raised P88.58 billion or 18.68 percent more than the collections made in the same period a year earlier.  It exceeded the collection target for the said month last year by P11.89 billion or by 15.51 percent.

Non-BIR operations, accounted for P2.76 billion or 16.79 percent higher than the collections made in December 2011.

The figure, however, was P166.1 million or 5.69 percent lower than the collection target for the said month.

The BIR sees better prospects this year with the expected additional taxes to be collected following the passage of the sin tax bill, which increased the excise tax rates on tobacco products and alcoholic beverages.

The government earlier said it expected to raise around P34 billion in additional revenues during the first year of implementation of the sin tax measure.  The figure is expected to increase to P184.31 billion in the next four years or a yearly average of 43 billion.

For this year, the agency is tasked to collect P1.25 trillion, a new record and represents a 17.6 percent increase from the 2012 goal of P1.07 trillion.

The 2013 goal, higher than the original target of P1.24 trilion, is based on the latest Medium Term Revenue Program dated Jan. 15.