January to November tax collections improve – gov’t

MANILA, Philippines – The country’s tax efforts in the first 11 months of 2015 improved due to administration improvements, the Department of Finance (DOF) said in its latest Economic Bulletin.

The country’s tax-to-gross domestic product ratio in January to November 2015 rose to 13.7%, a bit higher than last year’s 13.45% ratio – showing an improvement in the government’s tax collection efforts.

Overall revenues grew by 12.1% in the first 11 months of the previous year – exceeding the 5.1% growth in nominal GDP from Q1 to Q3. Revenue efforts also rose by a full percentage point compared to the same period in 2014 – from 15% to 16%.  

Tax revenues rose by 7.2%, with the collections of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) rising by 8.8%. Collections of other offices were also up by 3.6%. 

The Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) collections, however, languished at 1.6% as oil taxes dropped because of lower international prices. Not counting oil taxes, BOC collections were up 12%. 

The proceeds from the privatization of coconut levy-funded assets also helped in revenue increases, helping lift non-tax revenue by 55%.

Meanwhile, expenditures were up 13%, also exceeding GDP growth. 

“The national government’s deficit was in deficit by 0.38% of GDP, slightly higher than the 0.23% deficit in 2014,” the DOF also said.

Better debt management and higher revenues helped in lowering the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio to 45.4% in November. However, because of the depreciation of the peso, external debt ratio to GDP slightly went up. – Rappler.com

Money, calculator, notebook and pen image from Shutterstock