Collection amounted to about S / 140,000 million in 2021, surpassing the prepandemic levels by 19.2%

The National Superintendency of Customs and Tax Administration (Sunat) reported that the annual tax collection corresponding to 2021 amounted to S / 139,952 million, exceeding by more than S / 13,000 what was projected in the multi-year macroeconomic framework; thus reaching a tax pressure that would reach 16.1%, the highest in the last 7 years.

The reported results represent an increase of 44.4% compared to 2020 and 19.2% compared to 2019, widely exceeding pre-pandemic levels.

In this way, the tax burden, which measures tax revenues as a percentage of GDP, would have increased to 16.1% in 2021, that is, 3.1 percentage points above that registered in 2020 (13.0%) and 1.7 percentage points of that of 2019 (14.4%).

In this regard, Luis Enrique Vera, National Superintendent of Sunat, explained that one of the factors that explain this result is the improvement in economic activity, with a GDP that would have grown 13.2% last year, according to projections from the Central Bank Reserve of Peru (BCRP).

The higher collection of domestic taxes due to the increase in domestic demand also contributed to the result; as well as the external impulse, through the high international prices of metals, mainly copper; and the lowest comparison base in 2020.

“Another key factor that drove collection was the recovery of more than S / 6.6 billion of tax debt, mainly product of control and collection actions carried out by Sunat; to which was added income generated by a group of economic operations of sale and / or reorganization of companies, “said the superintendent.

Sector growth

He also pointed out that in 2021 there was an important growth in the collection of the main economic sectors, such as the mining (217%), construction (+ 39.0%), commerce (+ 34.0%), manufacturing (+ 29%) and, to a lesser extent, services (+ 11%). All these sectors also registered significant growth compared to 2019.