Finance Secretary Ralph Recto on Tuesday admitted that corruption has dampened taxpayer sentiment, but he added that government collections are still manageable.
Senate Finance Committee chair Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian asked Recto during the Finance department’s budget briefing Tuesday: “Meron bang effect [ang corruption] on taxpayer payment?”
“Definitely,” Recto replied.
“Definitely, yes, nararamdaman na ng BIR yan. Medyo yung growth rate ng collection nila, nababawasan nang konti. But so far, manageable naman,” he noted.
But when looking at the big picture, the government is still doing better this year compared to past years, Recto said.
“Over the past three years, revenues have grown at a double-digit pace, averaging 13.8 percent annually. Tax collections have expanded by 11.5 percent every year. Last year, we posted a revenue effort of 16.7 percent — the highest in 27 years and one of the strongest in Asia,” Recto said.
“At nagpapasalamat po kami sa ating mga taxpayers sa kanilang ambag para sa bayan,” he said.
Government aims to increase revenue collections by 10.2 percent for 2026, as it eyes better collections in the years to come.
Recto said the government sees total revenues hitting nearly P6 trillion by 2028, and this will climb further to P7 trillion by 2030.
“And we will bring down our deficit to around 4 percent of (gross domestic product) by 2028, and further to 3 percent by 2030. At the same time, we project the economy to reach P42.6 trillion by 2030, while keeping our debt manageable at 58 percent of GDP.”
Recto shared with the panel that the government will spend almost P19 billion a day next year, of which only a little over P13 billion is internally generated.
“Next year, our proposed national budget stands at P6.79 trillion. But only P4.98 trillion are supportable by revenues. Ibig sabihin, ang gastusin ng gobyerno ay aabot sa P18.61 bilyon kada araw. But only P13.65 billion per day will be financed by revenue collections,” he explained.
