“The President has made it very clear that she and her economic team remain committed to the economic reform program that produced 5.4 percent economic growth in 2006 and that has enabled the government to generate the revenue needed to invest in modern infrastructure and much needed social services,” Bunye noted.
“The economy grew 6.9 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, far exceeding market expectations and marking its fastest annual expansion in 17 years. Sustained growth in foreign direct investments, which grew 18.5 percent to reach US$710 million in the first quarter, and registered foreign portfolio investments, which grew two and a half times year-on-year in the first five months to US$1.7 billion, are evidence that our strategy to reform our country and our economy is working,” he said.
In an earlier revenue command conference last July 4 in Malacanang, President Arroyo ordered finance officials to attain the governments P63-billion budget deficit goal and the P1.1-trillion revenue target for 2007.
Present at the command conference were officials of the inter-agency Development Budget Coordination Committee, the BIR, the BOC, and their mother agency, the Department of Finance.
Finance Secretary Margarito Teves is hopeful that despite tax collection shortfalls in the first half of 2007 with the budget deficit likely to have reached P37-billion or P6.4 billion higher than the programmed P31.4-billion — the full-year deficit and revenue targets could be attained via improved collection efficiency, aggressive privatization efforts, and more effective anti-corruption programs.
The estimated BIR shortfall from January to June 2007 was P40 billion; while that of the BOC was P13 billion. The two agencies have since mapped out their own actions plans to meet their 2007 revenue targets of P730 billion and P228 billion, respectively.(PIA Dispatch)
