Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno is confident that revenue collections will surpass pre-pandemic levels this year, in light of higher economic activity that is supported by effective tax administration.

According to the Bureau of Treasury (BTr), the government’s January to October total revenue collections reached P2.9 trillion?an 18.3 percent increase from the same period in 2021.

“We are now at 89 percent of our full-year target. Given this, we expect revenue collections to surpass pre-pandemic levels this year,” said Diokno during the BusinessWorld Economic Forum at the Grand Hyatt Manila on November 29.

Of the year-to-date collections, P2.6 trillion or 90 percent were from taxes, while P299.5 billion came from non-tax revenue sources.

The BIR’s year-to-date revenue collections increased by 12.6 percent to P1.9 trillion year-on-year. Meanwhile, the BOC’s year-to-date revenue collections rose by 35.8 percent to P713.5 billion compared to the same period in 2021.

To sustain these hard-earned gains, the government is implementing the country’s first-ever Medium-Term Fiscal Framework (MTFF). This serves as the country’s blueprint for fiscal sustainability for the next six years.

The framework proposes measures that will improve tax administration, enhance the fairness and efficiency of the tax system, and promote sustainability to address climate change.

The fiscal strategy will help bring down debt-to-GDP ratio to less than 60 percent by 2025, and further down to 51 percent by 2028. Furthermore, it will cut the deficit-to-GDP ratio to three percent by 2028. DOF Communications Division