National revenue fell 14.7% year-on-year in March 2023

National collection fell 14.7% year-on-year in March 2023, reported the National Superintendence of Customs and Tax Administration (Sunat).

According to the tax administration, collection in the third month of the year reached S/ 15,239 million net income from Central Government taxes (discounting tax refunds).

However, the result was affected by the “low performance of economic activity, the declaration of emergency due to natural disasters and the postponement of maturities.” The 6.6% increase in the collection of Business Income offset the results.

“Another factor that we must highlight is that Sunat has improved its processes to process taxpayer returns, now attending to them in less time than the established time. In March, S/ 2,099 million were returned,” the entity said in a statement.

For Sunat, several factors explain the results of the collection in March, including the modest performance of economic activity, with GDP growth in February that would have been zero and internal demand that would decrease by 1.5%, as well as the postponement of the maturities of tax obligations “by virtue of the Supreme Decrees that declared an emergency due to natural disasters in various locations in the country.”

It should be noted that this measure is not totally negative, because it contributes to providing liquidity to taxpayers, promoting that natural persons and companies can restart or continue with their commercial activities, promoting the economic reactivation of the regions affected by natural disasters.

Also included are the lower payments for the Regularization of Income Tax with a reduction of 46.3%, the impact of the application of the reduced IGV rate for MYPES restaurants and hotels (approved by Law No. 31556 ), lower extraordinary payments as a result of control and collection actions by Sunat, and a reduction of more than 8% in imports, despite the 1.3% increase in the exchange rate.