Philippine highlights digitalization to boost tax collection

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines maintained that improving digitalization efforts would increase revenue collection of the government and boost needed economic recovery from the pandemic.

Finance chief Benjamin Diokno highlighted this during the recent Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Finance Ministers’ Meeting in Bangkok in Thailand.

“The digitalization of tax administration is a priority goal of the Philippine government. The operationalization of the initiatives could not have come at a better time,” Diokno said.

“The pandemic presented an opportunity for the Philippines to quicken improvements to revenue agencies’ online filing and payment systems, which helped maintain and even improve tax collections amid the crisis,” he said.

Data showed that the shift to digital payment systems led to a five percent increase in taxpayers and an 84 percent jump in electronic payments last year.

This allowed revenue collections to expand by 5.2 percent and exceed government’s targets by four percent.

Diokno said the digitalization of the operations of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Bureau of Customs (BOC), the country’s largest revenue generating agencies, resulted in the efficient tax administration through electronic means.

“The move resulted in the steady inflow of revenues that gave the government the fiscal space it needed to orchestrate COVID response programs,” Diokno said.

The APEC meeting gathered finance ministers of 21 countries to explore areas in fiscal policies, taxation regimes, redistribution programs, investment incentives, digital leverage, and sustainable development that would promote digitalization and sustainability as drivers for economic growth.