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Philippines: Excise tax collections from large taxpayers decline in H1
MANILA, Philippines – Excise taxes collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) from large taxpayers in the first half went down year-on-year, but still managed to exceed the target amid the slowdown in economic activity caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 pandemic.
According to preliminary data from the Department of Finance (DOF), large taxpayers paid a total of P128.59 billion in excise taxes from January to June, surpassing the revised target of P113.64 billion by 13.15 percent.
This was, however, 24.23 percent down from the P169.72 billion collected by the BIR in the same period last year.
Economic managers earlier adjusted the government’s revenue collection targets for 2020 to take into account the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on economic activity.
Based on DOF data, almost half of the P61.47 billion of the total excise tax collections from large taxpayers in the first semester came from tobacco products. This was 41 percent higher as compared to the BIR’s target of P43.6 billion for this segment.
Excise tax collections for alcohol amounted to P27.46 billion, 31.07 percent above the target of P20.95 billion.
Large taxpayers also paid a total of P16.41 billion in excise taxes for sugar-sweetened beverages, which is 2.46 percent short of the P16.83 billion target for the first half of 2020.
Some P2.12 billion of the excise tax collections in the first half also came from minerals; P985 million from automobiles; P129 million from non-essentials; and P1 million from cosmetic procedures.
The DOF said excise taxes collected from petroleum products also amounted to P19.99 billion from January to June.
This fell 30 percent short of the BIR’s target of P28.59 billion for the period due to the decline in demand for oil products following the imposition of movement restrictions starting last March.
For the month of June alone, excise tax revenues reached P31.06 billion, 16.45 percent up from last year’s level of P26.67 billion, the DOF said.
Collections from tobacco products amounted to P18.1 billion, almost triple of the P6.56 billion target, and 36.1 percent up from the P13.3 billion collected in the same month in 2019.
Source: https://www.philstar.com/business/2020/07/14/2027728/excise-tax-collections-large-taxpayers-decline-h1