The Department of Finance said it will not recommend the easing of restrictions in the trade of cigarettes and liquor to increase sin tax collections in the middle of the implementation of enhanced community quarantine in Luzon.
“No,” Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said in a brief response to reporters. “Sin taxes are imposed to discourage consumption of products that are detrimental to health. We do wish not to exacerbate the current health crisis.”
Dominguez said one of the restrictions to cigarette trade was that companies were not allowed to withdraw from their factories because they were covered by a halt in manufacturing activities as cigarettes were considered non-essential.
Several local government units also imposed ban on the sale and consumption of liquor during the ECQ to prevent people from going out of their homes and interacting with their neighbors.
Tax collections of the Bureau of Internal Revenue plummeted by a third and fell 45 percent short of the target as of mid-April amid the community quarantine measures that paralyzed economic activities in Luzon and other parts of the country.
Data showed total collections of the BIR from January to mid-April this year dived to P480.64 billion, P226.15 billion or 32 percent below of what it collected in the same period last year.
The BIR extended the deadlines for the filing and payment of income and other taxes to next month as a result of the community quarantine measures designed to contain the spread of coronavirus disease 2019.
Preliminary data submitted by the BIR to the Department of Finance also showed collections from Jan. 1 to April 17 was also P398.54 billion or 45.3 percent short of the P879.18-billion target for the period.
The BIR, which accounts for 78 percent of the state’s tax collection capacity, said that the April figure represented less than 10 percent of its target for the month. It said that from April 1 to 17, tax collections amounted to only P25.01 billion, or just 8.66 percent of its P288.75-billion target for the entire month. It was also 89.5 percent lower than P237.93 billion it collected in the first 17 days of April 2019.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Customs said actual collections dipped to P160.98 billion from Jan. 1 to April 15. This was P3.42 billion or 2.08 percent lower than P164.4 billion it collected in the same period last year.
The Jan. 1-April 15 collection of the BOC was also P32.91 billion or 17 percent short of the P193.89 -billion target for the period.
Combined collection of the BIR and BOC from Jan. 1 to April 17 reached P641.62 billion, which was P431.45 billion or 40 percent short of the P1.073-trillion target for that period.
The P641.62-billion collection was also P229.56 billion or 26.3 percent lower than the P871.19 billion the two agencies collected a year earlier.
The BIR earlier extended the filing and payment of income tax returns from the original extension date of May 15 to May 30. The submission of attachments to electronically filed ITRs was also extended to June 15.
The BIR also moved the deadline for the filing and payment of the monthly value-added tax returns for February and March to May 6 to 10 and May 21 to 25, depending on the category of the taxpayer.
The quarterly VAT filing and payment for the fiscal quarter ending Feb. 29 was extended to May 10 and the fiscal quarter ending March 31 was extended to May 25.