THE BUREAU of Internal Revenue (BIR) exceeded its collection target by 3.64% in July as economic activity picked up, preliminary data showed.
BIR Deputy Commissioner for Operations Arnel SD. Guballa told BusinessWorld the agency collected P171.85 billion in July, surpassing its P165.82-billion revenue target by 3.64%.
The July tax take was also 7.03% higher than the P160.57 billion collected in July 2020, and 7.8% bigger than the P159.364 billion revenues in June.
Tax collections started picking up this year as economic activity increased and lockdowns were eased.
BIR operations generated P165.25 billion in revenues in July, exceeding its goal by 4%. This was also 8.68% higher year on year.
The increase was driven by higher collections from BIR’s regional offices, but was partially offset by the lower tax haul from Large Taxpayers Service (LTS).
Collections from LTS totaled P104.12 billion last month, falling short of the P107.64-billion target by 3.3%. It was also 0.11% lower than its year-ago collection.
Revenues generated by BIR’s regional offices stood at P61.12 billion, exceeding the P51.25-billion goal for the month and also 28% bigger year on year.
Meanwhile, revenues from non-BIR operations missed the P6.92-billion target by 4.6% at P6.61 billion in July. Compared with the same month last year, this was also 22.5% less than P8.52 billion.
The BIR is tasked to collect P2.081 trillion this year.
The Bureau of Customs, the second-largest revenue-generating body of the government, also beat its collection target in July by 8.2% after raking in P58.183 billion in duties and taxes.
This brought Customs’ tax collections in the seven months to July to P359.93 billion, which was 4.15% higher than its goal for the period. It is expected to collect P620 billion this year. — Beatrice M. Laforga