Economist Michael Ricafort has called for additional tax reform measures in the Philippines to increase government revenues, which contracted by 0.25% in February. The Bureau of the Treasury revealed that government revenues decreased to PHP211.9bn (USD3.9bn) in February, partly due to the 5.29% YoY drop to PHP192.3bn in Bureau of Internal Revenue collections. However, the Bureau of Customs' revenues rose by 5.83% to PHP62.9bn, boosting state tax collections for the month. Government spending was little changed, increasing by 0.01% to PHP318.2bn in February, resulting in a budget gap of PHP106.4bn in the second month this year, 0.54% higher than PHP105.8bn last year. In the first two months this year, government revenues rose by 14.18% YoY to PHP490.5bn, higher than the 0.16% rise in expenditures to PHP620.7bn.