Tax collection rises 11%

The Bureau of Internal Revenue said Thursday tax collection increased 11 percent in the first five months to P659.96 billion from P596.31 billion a year ago, but fell short of the target for the period.

BIR said in a statement tax collections in the January-May period were 20.9-percent below the P833.937-billion target.

BIR said in May alone, tax collections grew 18.4 percent to P152.14 billion from a year earlier, but fell 22.4 percent short of the P196.098-billion target for the month. 

Data showed that collections from BIR operations rose 11 percent in the first five months to P644.47 billion, while collections from non-BIR operations declined 3.9 percent to P15.49 billion.

BIR has a target to collect P2.025 trillion worth of taxes in 2016.