Philippine gov't eyes 4.68 trillion pesos of revenue by 2022

The Philippine government is eyeing to increase its revenue to 4.68 trillion pesos (97.03 billion U.S. dollars) or 18.1 percent of the country's gross domestic product by 2022, the end of the six-year term of President Rodrigo Duterte, a senior government official said Wednesday.

For 2017, the revenues are expected to reach 2.48 trillion pesos, 10 percent higher than 2016 collections and equivalent to 15.6 percent of GDP, said Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno in a forum with businessmen.

"Revenues are also targeted to increase by 11 to 12 percent annually to reach 4.68 trillion pesos or 18.1 percent of GDP by 2022," he said.

Diokno said the target higher revenues could be achieved through more efficient tax administration and the passage of new revenue measures being proposed by the Department of Finance (DoF).

"We will reform the tax system to make it more equitable, efficient and competitive in the region. A number of reforms will be pursued, primarily the lowering of personal and corporate income tax rates from 32 percent and 30 percent, respectively, to 25 percent," he said.

The loss in revenues due to income tax cuts will be offset by expanding the Value-Added Tax (VAT) Base, the official explained.

"We aim to remove the exceptions not related to agriculture, health, banking, education and the financial sector. This will result in additional revenues amounting to 68.6 billion pesos in the first year of implementation," he said.

The Duterte administration is also proposing to Congress new excise taxes on oil which will reach 130.5 billion pesos in revenues in its first year of implementation, he said.

Diokno said fiscal incentives will be rationalized to allow a more balanced environment for competition. Endit