Diokno outlines priority legislation to help gov’t attain medium-term fiscal targets, support FY 2024 national budget

During the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) briefing to the Senate on the proposed PHP 5.768-trillion National Budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno gave an overview of the Medium-Term Fiscal Framework (MTFF), revenue collection performance, and legislative priorities identified by the Department of Finance (DOF) that would help the government achieve the MTFF targets.

These include the passage of the remaining tax reform packages of the Duterte administration, as well as new measures such as the excise tax on single-use plastics (SUPs), rationalization of mining fiscal regime, motor vehicle road users tax, excise tax on sweetened beverages and junk foods, tax on pre-mixed alcohol, value-added tax (VAT) on digital service providers, carbon taxation, capital market development bill, and the military and uniformed personnel (MUP) pension reform bill.

“These tax revenue measures will enable us to raise additional revenues totalling 120.5 billion pesos or 0.5 percent of GDP in 2024. These will further increase to 152.2 billion or equivalent to 0.5 percent of GDP in 2025 with the enactment of the motor vehicles road user’s tax and further to 183.2 billion pesos or 0.6 percent of GDP in 2026,” Secretary Diokno said during his presentation before the Senate Committee on Finance, chaired by Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, on August 15, 2023.

The MTFF serves as the government’s blueprint to bring down the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio from 60.9 percent in 2022 and to less than 60 percent by 2025, cut the deficit-to-GDP ratio to 3.0 percent by 2028, and maintain infrastructure spending at 5 to 6 percent of GDP.

“While we await the passage into law of the proposed tax reforms, the DOF and its collecting bureaus are aggressively implementing reforms to strengthen tax administration in order to achieve Medium-Term Fiscal Framework targets,” Secretary Diokno said.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) are diligently pursuing their respective digitalization programs that are intended to eliminate corruption, increase transparency and improve the ease of paying taxes.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas