Diokno to BIR: Strong revenue collections, fair and efficient tax administration vital to achieving fiscal targets

Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno emphasized the importance of maintaining good revenue performance in achieving the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration’s goals set in the Medium-Term Fiscal Framework (MTFF) during the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR)’s 119th Anniversary on August 1, 2023 at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay.

“Guided by the Medium-Term Fiscal Framework, the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. aims to achieve three headline goals by the end of its term: one, reduce debt-to-GDP ratio to 51 percent; two, bring down the deficit-to-GDP to 3 percent; and three, cut the poverty incidence to single digits. Maintaining a healthy level of revenues is vital to the attainment of each of these targets,” he said in his keynote message.

The MTFF, crafted by the economic team within the first month of the PBBM administration, serves as the government’s blueprint to bring down the debt-to-GDP ratio 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.

According to the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr)’s latest report, total revenue collections for the first six (6) months of the year improved by 7.7 percent year-on-year (YoY), which is PHP 132.6 billion higher than the same period in 2022.

Tax revenues contributed 89 percent to the year-to-date (YTD) collections, while 11 percent came from non-tax revenues. For the BIR’s part, YTD collections grew by 7.7 percent or PHP 86.7 billion YoY to PHP 1.2 trillion.

Due to the higher revenue outturn, the National Government (NG)’s cumulative budget gap for the 6-month period dropped to PHP 551.7 billion, which is 18.2 percent lower compared to last year’s shortfall of PHP 674.2 billion.

“Clearly, so much of our economic aspirations depend on the performance of this Bureau. This means the men and women of this Bureau have both tremendous responsibility and privilege at the same time. Hence, transparency and accountability are important,” Secretary Diokno said.

The BIR has continuously engaged in various programs to promote fairness and transparency in the tax system.

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