Collection fell 14.7% in March due to no progress in GDP

During March of this year, S/15,239 million were collected in net tax revenues -discounting tax refunds-, Sunat recently reported. In year-on-year terms, there is a fall of 14.7% compared to the same period last year.

Why were fewer resources captured? According to the collecting entity, the GDP for February would have stagnated after falling 1.12% in January; and also due to the declaration of emergency in some regions due to the rains and mudslides brought by Cyclone Yaku and the facilities given to citizens to extend the payment of taxes.

Sunat points out that the postponement of the expiration dates to declare taxes “is not entirely negative”, since it is provides liquidity to taxpayers and encourages them to restart or maintain their business activities even with the ravages of natural disasters.

complicated picture

Juan Carlos Odardirector of Phase Consultores, reminded La República that the tax collection data can be interpreted as a prelude to the result of the GDP for February -which will be presented in the middle of this month-, in addition, he foresees that in the second month of 2023 the productive activity would have been at 0%.

The slowdown in GDP that February would bring would be explained by the reduction in social demonstrations as a rejection of the Dina Boluarte regime and by the interruptions in commercial activity due to the passage of Cyclone Yaku.

“By March we would have a gradual recovery, but not enough due to lower tax collection. We will be far enough to return to the December data, but we will improve,” he added.

In the opinion of the specialist, the first quarter would have closed with the economy stagnant due to the aforementioned factors and, therefore, the GDP would grow this year below 2%, thus distancing itself from the 3.1% forecast by the Ministry of Economy and Finance ( MEF).

recoil details

Sunat specifies that in March S/8,905 million were collected for Income Tax (IR), equivalent to S/1,786 million less than last year (-23.2%). There were lower payments in regularization (-46.3%), fourth and fifth categories (-18.1% and -5.3%) and the Special Income Regime (-1.7%).

In terms of General Sales Tax (IGV), S/6,914 million were collected, decreasing S/123 million (-9.4%) compared to the same period in 2022. The lower internal demand and rate reduction for restaurants and hotels brought the internal IGV to the negative tranche (-3.9%).

And, in Selective Consumption Tax (ISC), an increase of S/750 million (7.1%) was observed. Even though the internal ISC fell 5.8% due to lower internal demand, the ISC levied on imports rose 33.7% due to the increase in the entry of fuels.

More factors behind the drop in collection

The decrease in tax revenue is also explained by the lower collection after the lower payments for the Regularization of Income Tax with a reduction of 46.3%.

To this must be added the expansion of the reduced IGV rate for mypes restaurants and hotels -modified from 18% to 8% that has been in force since the last quarter of 2022, supported by the law no. 31556–; lower extraordinary payments as a result of control and collection actions by Sunat.

Finally, there is also the 8% drop in imports, despite the fact that the exchange rate rose 1.3% in said month of study.