Philippines cites crackdown as budget deficit on target

The Philippines said Tuesday that Benigno Aquino's name-and-shame crackdown on tax cheats was bearing fruit and the extra revenues would help keep the budget deficit under control for the year.
Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said the January-November deficit was 269.8 billion pesos (6.08 billion dollars) and would stay well below the full-year target of 325 billion pesos.
"On the revenue front, the (internal revenue and customs bureaus) continued to make headway in their respective campaigns against tax evaders and smugglers (with) double-digit increases in revenue collections last month," he said.
"We are confident that the succeeding months will bring in higher revenue collections as our crusade against tax evaders, smugglers and corrupt revenue officials gains traction," Purisima said in a statement.
Taxpayers are now increasingly convinced that it is not business as usual and they now have to pay appropriate levies, he added.
The finance ministry has been aggressively filing tax suits every week against high-profile individuals and companies in its bid to improve the government's wafer-thin revenue base.
The campaign is part of new President Aquino's reform agenda that won him a landslide in the May elections.
The internal revenue bureau says just five million Filipinos pay their income taxes, with an estimated 20 million-plus evaders.