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OVERALL
collections of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in
the first three months, comprising cash as well as
noncash revenues, exceeded the target and totaled
P166.622 billion, BIR chief Lilian Hefti reported to the
Department of Finance Wednesday.
The BIR
was told to generate at least P164.007 billion but Hefti
went past the goal by P2.615 billion.
As a
result the agency’s year-on-year collections grew by
16.5 percent, or P23.518-billion more for the quarter,
Hefti told Finance Secretary Margarito Teves.
Its cash
collections for the period also exceeded the
P153.333-billion target by P1.124 billion at P154.457
billion.
The
chairman of the House ways and means panel cautioned the
revenue agencies, however, against prematurely
celebrating, saying much more had to be done “to fully
improve our tax collections so the BIR can hit its
P845-billion tax goal this year, which is 18.4-percent
more than the P713.6- billion collection in 2007.”
Lakas
Rep. Exequiel Javier of Antique added, “We hope the BIR
will do even better in the coming months.”
A year
earlier the BIR generated only P133.994 billion, making
the performance P20.472-billion more than previous or an
increase by 15.3 percent.
These
numbers belie reports that the BIR, which collects an
estimated 80 percent of aggregate collection, failed to
measure up to expectations by delivering less than the
desired collection number, Hefti said.
“Even
with the delisting of at least 400 large taxpayers from
the National Office, the Large Taxpayers Service [LTS]—which
monitors tax activities of 1,280 identified large
taxpayers nationwide—also made a breakthrough in
collection with a tax take of P90.445 billion versus its
2007 P83.067 billion [collection], or an increase of
P7.377 billion equivalent to 8.8 percent,” Hefti said.
She
recalled the BIR in the first quarter a year ago was a
key contributor to the budgetary shortfall that resulted
in a deficit of P38 billion in the first half.
Hefti
joined the BIR only in July last year and had to deal
with a large collection deficit from her predecessor
Jose Mario Buñag at the time.
Hefti
subsequently introduced a number of reforms and
innovations, helping to push higher the agency’s
performance.
She
vowed to do the utmost and achieve the agency’s
P845-billion collection goal this year.
To do
this, the BIR vowed to continue to simplify tax
administration and enhance collection efficiency by
enhancing its data- warehouse technology covering the
matching of sales and purchases; implementing a
nationwide computerization of revenue district offices (RDOs);
matching income payments of withholding agents with
reported income of the recipients; and sharing
information on taxpayers data through linkages with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, local government
units, the Social Security System, the Bureau of Customs
(BOC), the Department of Trade and Industry and the
Insurance Commission.
In
urging the BIR on Wednesday to sustain its
tax-collection efforts, the House ways and means panel
chairman, Representative Javier, said that while the
first-quarter BIR take of P163 billion is P21-billion
more than the P142 billion collected in the same period
last year, and higher than the agency’s internal target
for the period of P155.11 billion, it is still below the
P181-billion target of the interagency Development
Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC).
The
effectiveness of the BIR and the BOC in collecting
needed taxes will ensure funding for government
projects, programs and social services under the
P1.227-trillion national budget for 2008, he stressed.
“Government should continue its efforts to plug tax
leaks and stop smuggling to collect more. We have
adequate laws on these already, hence it’s a matter of
effectively implementing them. Both agencies should also
sustain the reforms they have initiated as part of their
revenue-raising schemes,” Javier said.
The BIR
said earlier that among the reforms it instituted are
the use of data-mining technology to complement tax
payments with sales and purchases, BIR records and
information from other agencies.
It also
vowed to strictly check on the tax payments of six major
industries, namely, manufacturing, utilities and
transportation; banks and other financial
intermediaries; insurance; real estate; and trading. |
