FOREGONE revenues from tax and duty exemptions on Covid-19 vaccine imports processed by the Department of Finance (DOF) last year reached almost P8.7 billion.
Finance Assistant Secretary Dakila Elteen M. Napao of the DOF’s Revenue Operations Group (ROG) said these foregone revenues amounting to P8.699 billion accounted for 37 percent of the total P23.4 billion tax and duty exemptions processed by the office last year.
Of the 276 requests that were received from vaccine importers by the DOF’s Revenue Office (RO), 254 applications were approved and issued tax exemption indorsements (TEIs).
“Estimated foregone revenue is returning to its pre-pandemic figure of P23.9 billion in 2019,” Napao said in a report to Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez. “However, this is primarily due to the foregone revenue attributable to importations of Covid-19 vaccines, as well as importations of items related to Covid-19 response.”
It was Dominguez who approved the inclusion of all Covid-19 vaccine imports in the express, or Mabuhay, lane of the DOF Revenue Office to allow the quick processing of the tax and duty exemptions of the doses within 24 hours.
Apart from this, filing fees for Covid-19 vaccine applications under the Mabuhay Lane were waived and the Tax Exemption System Online Filing Module was used to process vaccine imports following Dominguez’s approval.
Meanwhile, Napao said the DOF RO also issued TEIs to 823 applications for value-added tax exemptions on imports of Covid-19 medicines and medical devices, which resulted in foregone VAT revenues of P382.1 million in 2021.
The Financial Analytics and Intelligence Unit (FAI), which is also under the ROG, approved P211-million worth of tax refunds referred to the DOF by the Bureau of Customs last year.
Under Executive Order 46, the FAI was institutionalized to serve as the data analytics unit of the DOF for purposes of revenue management and to review matters that may be deemed fiscally adverse to the government, including those elevated by agencies, bureaus and offices attached to DOF for the approval and conformity of the Secretary of Finance, among other key functions.
