IMF to send tax experts

IMF to send tax experts

MANILA (AFP): The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is
dispatching a team of tax experts to the Philippines to help the
government plug tax loopholes, sources in the finance department
said yesterday.

The experts will arrive on Jan. 12 for a two-week stint during
which they will consult with government officials on their
attempts to boost revenues.

Their trip comes as figures released by the Treasury Bureau
showed that the government, as of the end of November, had
incurred a 7.98 billion-peso (US$200 million) budget deficit.

This was far below the 11.9-billion-peso surplus that was
originally projected for that period, the bureau documents said.

The Philippines is due to exit from over three decades of IMF
economic supervision next month, provided it passes an oil
deregulation law.