Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III assured Filipinos that the government will not raise taxes anytime soon, despite a sharp revenue shortfall during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Taxing our citizens when our incomes are down is not a good idea,” Dominguez recently told Bloomberg.

Tax collections have dipped by over 12%, as businesses either operated on limited capacity or totally closed as consumer demand weakened. 

With lower collections amid a recession, the budget deficit is projected to swell to 9.6% of gross domestic product.

Dominguez said the government is also not keen on selling assets to offset losses.

“We’re not that desperate. Most of our assets are in real estate and mining operations, and quite frankly the real estate market is uncertain up to this time although it has been holding quite well,” he said.

To finance the pandemic recovery efforts without raising taxes or selling assets, Dominguez said the government may borrow more from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) or multilateral lenders.

“Our first option is to go back to the commercial market. But if the economy doesn’t perform as we expect, we will go back to them (BSP),” he said.

So far, the central bank has given the government a bridge loan worth P840 billion for its short-term requirements. – Rappler.com