The Bureau of Internal Revenue has surpassed its tobacco excise tax collections target in February this year after Japan Tobacco International Philippines Inc. raised its tax payments by more than 100 percent.
Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa, in a report to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, said the BIR overshot its February 2021 target for tobacco excise tax collections by 4.3 percent, collecting P17.57 billion mid-month after JTI Philippines paid taxes of P10.94 billion, 108 percent higher than the P5.25 billion it paid in January.
Guballa said BIR’s tobacco excise tax target for the month was P16.85 billion.
The February 2021 collection in tobacco excise taxes is also P9.20 billion or 109.8-percent more than the amount of P8.37 billion collected in the same period in 2020.
“Noticeably, we have a big increase in the collection of tobacco excises because JTI opened its plant in Lima, Batangas. So it’s in full operation, that’s why they increased their production. That’s also why we have quite a collection in tobacco for this month,” Guballa said during a recent department executive committee meeting.