MANILA – The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has overshot its February 2021 target for tobacco excise tax collections by 4.28 percent, collecting P17.57 billion mid-month after Japan Tobacco International (JTI) Philippines Incorporated paid taxes of P10.94 billion.
In a report to Finance secretary Carlos Dominguez III, BIR deputy commissioner Arnel Guballa said preliminary data showed that from Feb. 1 to 18, the bureau collected P721.24 million more than its tobacco excise tax target of P16.85 billion for the month.
The February 2021 collection in tobacco excise taxes is also P9.20 billion or 109.85 percent more than the amount of P8.37 billion collected in the same period in 2020.
“Noticeably, we have a big increase in the collection of tobacco excises because JTI opened its plant in Lima, Batangas. So it’s in full operation, that’s why they increased their production. That’s also why we have quite a collection in tobacco for this month, sir,” Guballa said in his report during a recent Department of Finance (DOF) executive committee meeting.
The tobacco excise tax collection for Jan. 1 to Feb. 18 amounted to P29.1 billion, he said. It is P12.33 billion or 73.53 percent more than the P16.77 billion collected for the January-February period of the previous year.
As of Feb. 18, Guballa said JTI Philippines overtook Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corporation as the top tobacco excise taxpayer, with JTI’s remittance of P10.94 billion accounting for 62 percent of the total collection of P17.57 billion for the Feb. 1 to 18 periods.
JTI Philippines’ February tax payment is 108 percent more than the P5.25 billion it paid in January 2021, Guballa said.
In 2017, the DOF made history by collecting from cigarette manufacturer Mighty Corporation a tax settlement totaling P30 billion – the biggest sum on record raised by the government from a tax settlement – resulting from the Dominguez-ordered heightened joint campaign by the BIR and the Bureau of Customs against tax cheats.
Mighty Corp. sold its manufacturing and distribution assets to JTI Philippines. Tax collections from Mighty brands increased by an average of P2.5 billion a month since JTI took over Mighty’s operations.
Dominguez earlier expressed confidence that BIR will be able to overshoot its P2.08-trillion collection target this year as it faces the “great task” of raising as much revenues as possible to help fund the comprehensive government effort to defeat the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and support the nation’s sustainable economic recovery.(PNA)
