THE Bureau of Internal Revenue's (BIR) reported an increase in their tax collections by 8 percent last year.

In a report by BIR Commissioner Romeo Lumagui Jr. he said that the collections last year amounted to around PHP2.53 trillion.

This is higher than the 2022 collection of P2.34 trillion.

However, the amount fell short of the P2.64 trillion collection target for the BIR for 2023.

Lumagui explained that this is due to the changes in the value-added tax (VAT) compliance.

"Malaki laki yan kasi previously in 2022 monthly yung VAT payment. So isang quarter na VAT yung hindi pumasok for 2023. (That's big because before, VAT payment was monthly. So one quarter of VAT was not collected )," said Lumagui.

He explained that the VAT payment that was made for the fourth quarter of 2023 was only collected last month.

Meanwhile, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto remained optimistic, saying that despite this, the BIR "still did a good job."

"One of the reasons for that would be that the last quarter for VAT was paid in 2024. So that's one of the reasons," said Recto.

"But essentially I think they did a good job. I think the bigger challenge will be for 2024, because the revenue targets are high as well," he added.

For this year, the BIR is tasked to collect PHP3.05 trillion.