The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said Wednesday that it has exceeded its tax collection goal from operation last month by P3 billion.

BIR Commissioner Joel Tan-Torres, said the country's main tax collection agency generated P44.9 billion tax revenue from operation in February, higher by 8.3 percent compared to P41.43 billion goal for the month.

“We're still expecting P2 billion to P3 billion in the coming days, so likely we will be exceeding our overall target by P3 billion in February,” Tan-Torres told reporters on the sidelines of Philippine Economic Briefing.

Tan-Torres also said tax collection from the sale of Treasury bills, meanwhile, is still short by P1 billion against the target of P4 billion.

Overall, he said the BIR, which accounts for more than 75 percent of the national government’s revenue, is still short of target for February by P1.04 billion to P47.21 billion against the P48.252 billion target.

This has been the third straight month the BIR has exceeded its programmed collection since December last year.

With the strong collection in the first two-months of the year, Tan-Torres is confident that the BIR will achieve its collection goal for the first quarter of the year.

“We're saying, we're confident in exceeding our overall goal,” he added.

The Bureau of Customs earlier announced that it has collected more than its target of about P18.42 billion for the month of February.

This year, the BIR is task to collect P830 billion, while the Customs must collect P278 billion.

Finance Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran, said BIR and Customs are on track in attaining the P266.28 billion revenue target for the first three-months of the year on the back of favorable economic condition.

Government preliminary data revealed that in January, the BIR and Customs’ collection amounted to P79.2 billion, 13 percent higher compared with P70.09-billion target.