Gov't revenues reach P2.13 trillion in first half 

The government is on track to meet its revenue target for this year, with collections reaching nearly half of the goal in the first six months, a cabinet official said in a report by Manila Times.

As of the first half of 2024, the government has already collected P2.13 trillion in revenues, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto told reporters on Monday at the sidelines of the EJAP-SMC Economic Forum 2024.

This is 14.6 percent higher than last year's P1.9 trillion.

"With 50 percent of the revenue target already achieved in the first semester, we are on track to reach the P4.27 trillion revenue program for 2024," Recto said.

The government is targeting to collect P4.3 trillion for 2024, with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) tasked to collect P3.05 trillion and the Bureau of Customs (BoC) accounting for around P1 trillion.

Recto said that tax revenues improved by 8.8 percent, generating P1.81 trillion as of end-June.

The finance chief said that the BIR and Customs are boosting their collection efforts by 10.2 percent (P1.34 trillion) and 4.8 percent (P454.1 billion), respectively.

"There are shortfalls on both; the BIR is still double-digit, which is good, the BoC is single-digit, and we hope that they can improve their ability to collect more," Recto said.

"It takes time also to do tax administration, and just for the remaining half services, we're already halfway through the target, yeah, so we're collecting what is due halfway so far," he added.

Non-tax revenues have also significantly expanded by 64.5 percent, reaching P316.52 billion.

The Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) kept the revenue assumption for 2024, but those for 2025 to 2028 were raised to P4.644 trillion, P5.063 trillion, P5.627 trillion and P6.249 trillion, respectively.