BIR issues 59% less tax stamps

MANILA, Philippines — The number of cigarette tax stamps released by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) from March to June declined by 59 percent due to the imposition of mobility restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19, according to the Department of Finance (DOF).

In a statement, the DOF said the BIR released a total of 537.13 million in cigarette tax stamps during the first four months of the community quarantine, 59.35 percent or 728.29 million  lower than the 1.32 billion stamps issued in the same period last year.

This translated to P18.88 billion in total excise taxes paid, also 68.39 percent lower than the P59.46 billion paid in the same four months last year.

Earlier, Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran said there was a decline in the volume of cigarette removals from factories due to movement restrictions imposed on non-essential items amid the coronavirus crisis.

In a report to the DOF, Internal Revenue Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa said 50.85 million in cigarette tax stamps worth P1.78 billion were released from March 1 to 15, before Luzon and other parts of the country were placed under enhanced community quarantine.

The figure was 77.5 percent lower than the 226.88 million tax stamps equivalent to P10.21 billion in excise taxes collected in the same 15-day period last year.

Following this, the BIR released 165.21 million in tax stamps worth P5.78 billion from March 16 to 31, which was the period when the Luzon-wide lockdown was first imposed.

Guballa said this was 61.2 percent higher than the 104.49 million tax stamps valued at P4.61 billion issued by the BIR in the same period last year.

For April alone, the number of BIR-issued tax stamps decreased to 47.89 million, which translated to P1.68 billion in excise taxes collected.

Guballa said this showed an 85 percent drop from the 317.51 million stamps released during the same month a year ago, valued at P14.29 billion.

The volume further declined in May, with only 8.57 million cigarette tax stamps worth P299.89 million released.

This was 98 percent lower  compared to the 385.04 million (worth P17.33 billion) issued in May 2019.

However, Guballa noted that the volume of tax stamp releases recovered in June, when Metro Manila and other areas in the country shifted to a more relaxed general community quarantine or GCQ.

BIR-issued cigarette tax stamps rose to 264.61 million, valued at P9.26 billion.