The sustained robust tax collections and vigorous implementation of administrative reforms by the Bureau of Internal Revenue will help the government achieve its goal of eradicating extreme poverty within one generation, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said.
Dominguez said during the kick-off ceremonies of the bureau’s National Tax Campaign at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City that President Rodrigo Duterte’s 2016 campaign promise of effecting real change had become doable.
The BIR, which breached the P2-trillion mark in tax collections last year, has been helping raise enough revenues for the government to spend big on infrastructure and social services.
The BIR raised P2.18 trillion in revenues in 2019, 11.3-percent higher than the 2018 figure and resulted in the Philippines raising its tax effort to 15.1 percent of gross domestic product, its best rate in 22 years.
Dominguez expressed confidence the BIR’s performance this year would continue to improve.
