The government’s revenue collections has so far reached more than PHP1.4 trillion as of end-April this year, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said on Monday.

The end-April preliminary data was higher than the PHP1.3 trillion revenue collections recorded from January to April last year.

In his speech during the Government-Owned- or Controlled Corporations (GOCCs) Day celebration held at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City, Recto said the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collected PHP912.9 billion, up by 16.3 percent from the same period last year.

Collections of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) also went up to PHP299.6 billion.

Non-tax revenues, meanwhile, reached PHP206.4 billion.

“We expect both our tax and non-tax revenues to dramatically increase over the coming months as we intensify our revenue mobilization efforts,” Recto said.

He said the government will hopefully reach its revenue collection target of PHP4.3 trillion.

“So medyo [we’re] hitting the target. Pero first four months pa lang (Looks like we’re hitting the target. But it’s still the first four months). Let’s see if it’s sustainable for eight more months,” he said.

The bulk of the tax revenues amounting to PHP3.05 trillion will be generated by the BIR, while the BOC is expected to collect close to PHP1 trillion. (PNA)