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THE
President’s controversial Executive Order 625, seen in
some concerned quarters as a bid to pull the rug from
beneath the beleaguered chief of the Bureau of Internal
Revenue and to “consolidate” an alternative power base
in the agency, is no more.
What the
Palace had wrought, it unraveled on Wednesday with the
flick of the pen, as the President issued Executive
Order 625-A, in lieu of Executive Order 625 which BIR
chief Jose Mario Buñag said they were not consulted
about.
EO 625-A
effectively abolishes the newly created Office of the
Deputy Commissioner for Audit, Fraud and Investigation
under a new assistant commissioner in the BIR.
EO
625-A, which largely restores the BIR’s organizational
structure prior to the issuance of EO 625, administers
the Run After Tax Evaders (RATE) program through the
Office of the Deputy Commissioner for Legal and
Inspection of the BIR, and repeals other provisions of
EO 625.
EO 625,
which was to reorganize the BIR, had placed the RATE
program under the Office of the Deputy Commissioner for
Audit, Fraud and Investigation under newly appointed
assistant commissioner Cesar Lim, the South Makati
revenue district collector.
The
function used to be performed by Nestor Valeroso, the
head of the BIR Large Taxpayers’ Service (BIR-LTS).
In
signing EO 625-A, the President cited the “need to
strengthen the prosecutorial and enforcement mechanism
of the government’s national internal revenue generation
program.”
“Organizational streamlining is critical to the
continuing success of the RATE program of the Bureau of
Internal Revenue,” Mrs. Arroyo said in EO 625-A.
She also
cited her “continuing authority”, as Chief Executive,
“to reorganize the administrative structure of the
Executive Department.”
EO 625-A
was signed on June 12, on the same day that Mrs. Arroyo
met with Finance Secretary Margarito Teves and BIR
Commissioner Buñag on the BIR’s performance amid strong
whispers that the latter would be sacked because of poor
BIR collections for the first quarter of the year.
Prior to
the meeting, Buñag told reporters in an interview that
he had misgivings about EO 625, which he had reviewed by
his legal and operations staff, because of its possible
implications on BIR operations.
The BIR
chief had said that he felt there was “something funny”
about EO 625 which his office was not consulted on.
After
that Monday meeting, Teves told reporters that while the
President expressed concern about the “slippage” in BIR
collections, she would withhold any decision regarding
revenue officials and the BIR’s organizational structure
pending a review of “recent information.”
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said in his weekly
news conference that the President has not set a
specific time frame for the review.
****
Revenues for ’08 seen to rise to P1.2T
By Jun Vallecera
Reporter
FROM
P1.118 trillion this year, revenues next year were seen
again to lift by 10.5 percent to P1.236 trillion.
It would
only be the second time when revenue flows will hit the
trillion-peso level, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya
said in a document obtained by financial reporters.
Andaya’s
projected revenue flows were based on the assumption
that economic expansion, measured as the gross domestic
product, would range from 5.8 percent up to 6.2 percent.
The
projection also assumed inflation will range from 3-4
percent, or stay the same as the anticipated inflation
for this year.
In
addition, domestic interest rates as indicated by the
91-day Treasury bill rate, should range from 4 percent
up to 5 percent.
Under
these assumptions, the various tax collection agencies
should be able to pool together P1.138 trillion from
various taxable sources plus P98.5 billion from nontax
sources.
Next
year, Andaya said, the Bureau of Internal Revenue should
collect at least P873.9 billion and the Bureau of
Customs, at least P254 billion.
This
compares with revenue goals of only P765 billion and
P254.7 billion, respectively.
The sale
of government assets is seen to yield at least P500
million by next year, sharply down from anticipated
asset sale proceeds of at least P25 billion this year.
The
Bureau of Treasury, which continues to operate without a
permanent chief, was tasked with collecting at least
P57.7 billion from P53.5 billion this year.
Next
year is when the budget, perennially in deficit for so
many years, will finally post a balance. |
