NEDA gives green light on cigarette stamp tax

BY DENNIS GADIL

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has just given the green light to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to pursue negotiations with Swiss firm SICPA Product Security S.A. on the latter’s unsolicited proposal to introduce a fool-proof tax stamps technology on cigarettes and alcohol...(more)

BIR gives up on collection target

BY DENNIS GADIL

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is saying goodbye to its revenue target of P798.5 billion this year, blaming the back-to-back typhoons that struck the country...(more)

DOF bucks full tax exemption of BSP

BY DENNIS GADIL

Here comes another revenue-eroding measure...(more)

Gov’t gets P11B dividends from GOCCs

BY DENNIS GADIL

Government received P11.067 billion in dividends from government owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) and government financial institutions during the first nine months of the year, an improvement of 147.4 percent from P4.473 billion during the same period last year...(more)

Goldman Sachs forecasts P311B deficit

BY DENNIS GADIL

New York-based investment bank Goldman Sachs said the Philippines is facing a possible deficit equivalent to 4 percent of the gross domestic product or roughly P311.8 billion as scarce government revenues are further drained from its typhoon rehabilitation work...(more)

9-month deficit P12.5B short of full-year ceiling

BY DENNIS GADIL

The government is close to breaching its full-year deficit target of P250 billion after incurring a shortfall of P237.5 billion from January to September this year or 345 percent higher than the P53.4 million recorded in the same nine-month period last year...(more)

BIR lets Shell off the hook on P21.4B tax assessment

BY DENNIS GADIL

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is letting Pilipinas Shell off the hook on a P21.4 billion assessment for imports of catalytic cracked gasoline (CCG), which the Bureau of Customs (BOC) insists are covered by excise tax...(more)

July debt stock up 6.5%

BY DENNIS GADIL

Government debt increased to P4.223 trillion in July this year, up 6.5 percent from P3.966 billion a year ago, as it availed of more overseas borrowings to support a widening budget deficit, the Bureau of The Treasury (BTr) reported yesterday...(more)

Gov’t raises P300B deficit scenario

BY DENNIS GADIL

Finance secretary Margarito Teves yesterday said the government is looking at a worse-case scenario budget deficit of P300 billion from the current "difficult- to-defend" P250 billion target representing 3.2 percent of the gross domestic product...(more)

Government ready to lower FTI price

Paging giant property developers, the government is holding a bargain sale... Dennis Gadil (more)

Samurai bond ready for signing

BY DENNIS GADIL

After months of haggling, the government is finally ready to "sign on the dotted lines" providing for a much lower guarantee fee from Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) which is guaranteeing the country’s long-delayed $1-billion Samurai bond offering...(more)

Gov’t mulls negotiated bidding for FTI

BY DENNIS GADIL

The government is considering to subject the sprawling Food Terminals Inc. (FTI) property in Taguig City to a negotiated sale after the formal bidding failed last week with no group or interested investors showing up to lay claim on the prime real estate...(more)

Terminal fee to be hiked by $1 for overtime pay of Customs

BY DENNIS GADIL

The airport authority will start charging an extra $1 in terminal fee on departing passengers to cover the over time pay of customs personnel serving beyond their regular work hours...(more)

No bidders for FTI property

BY DENNIS GADIL

Purported giant developers interested in buying the sprawling Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) Complex in Taguig City yesterday shied away from the actual bidding process, which resulted to an auction failure...(more)

Major steel-producing countries exempted from higher tariffs

BY DENNIS GADIL

Here’s a case of the left hand taking back what the right hand grants...(more)

Gov’t rejects bids for 7-yr T-bonds

BY DENNIS GADIL

The government yesterday rejected bids for seven-year treasury bonds (T-bonds) as rates sought for the long-dated debt paper exceeded secondary market rates...(more)

Typhoon rehab works to boost growth: UBS

BY DENNIS GADIL

The Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) is discounting the adverse economic impact of typhoon Ondoy as it expressed optimism the country will post a growth of 1.3 percent in the gross domestic product (GDP) this year from its earlier forecast of 0.8 percent...(more)

Gov’t completes SGS payment

BY DENNIS GADIL

The government has finally delivered the P3.16 billion last of two installments to Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS SA) to complete the compromise amount of P6.2 billion to the Swiss inspection firm...(more)

What’s in large taxpayers that attracts Miriam, Jun?

BY DENNIS GADIL

What’s in the Large Taxpayers Service (LTS) unit of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) that drives Miriam Defensor Santiago hell-bent in having it transferred under the supervision of her husband Narciso Santiago Jr., presidential adviser on revenue enhancement (PARE)...(more)

Gov’t eyes 3rd dollar bonds

BY DENNIS GADIL

Government will make its third foray into the global bond market in the fourth quarter of the year ahead of the long-delayed Samurai bond float to help plug a widening budget deficit, which is now under threat of being breached due to the cost of rehabilitation efforts from typhoon "Ondoy."...(more)

Gov’t scrambles to find ways to fund supplemental budget

BY DENNIS GADIL

The government is looking at unloading more "idle" assets or tweaking its borrowing program for the fourth quarter to accommodate the P10 billion supplemental budget being eyed by Congress to cover the rehabilitation cost for the damage wrought by typhoon "Ondoy."...(more)

Teves insists unitary sin tax to reverse revenue drop

BY DENNIS GADIL

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves yesterday reiterated that the revenue decline hobbling the government in the previous months could only be reversed with the passage of a unitary sin tax rate on cigarette and alcohol products before the year closes...(more)