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It was
Benjamin Franklin who famously said, “In this world
nothing is certain but death and taxes.”
But
sacked Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Jose
Buñag seems to have a modern take on that adage,
although in the concrete Philippine context. He says
that every BIR commissioner is doomed to fail, because
“there are too many cooks.”
Well, we
can interpret that statement to mean that the
administration’s economic managers have been breathing
down his neck and imposing unrealistic and therefore
unattainable tax collection targets in the first place,
and making him the scapegoat for their own shortcomings.
As if to
convince the media that he’d been caught between a rock
and a hard place right from the very beginning, Buñag
gave reporters a copy of the comparative BIR collection
and goal from 1975 to 2006, which showed that despite a
20.28-collection growth rate last year, there was still
a deficiency of P22.6 billion, short of the
P652.75-billion target.
He
pointed out that it was only in 1975 that the country
posted a two-digit excess in tax collection against the
goal of P4.7 billion. The figures showed that beginning
1976, the BIR already posted annual deficiencies in its
collections, with 15.19 percent in 1980 and further
sliding to 17.37 percent in 1983, when former senator
Benigno S. Aquino was assassinated. Collection growth
rates were highest in 1984 at 46.15 percent when the
government was able to exceed the collection target of
P31.6 billion.
The
obvious conclusion, according to Buñag: “Anybody who’s
appointed there would really have a difficult time
meeting the targets.”
And the
solution? “The whole government financial system should
be reorganized.”
A
reorganization of the financial system is not in the
horizon, however, as far as Finance Secretary Margarito
Teves is concerned.
On
Thursday, a day after Malacañang sacked Buñag from his
post, Teves assured the private sector of a sustained
and strong macroeconomic environment, and said he would
focus on what needs to be done.
The
Teves agenda, as he explained during a business forum in
Cebu: “First, we will be implementing steps that will
enhance tax collection. Second, we will present to
Congress what we call revenue-enhancement measures. And
third, raise temporary revenues from the privatization
of some government assets via shares of stock.”
All that
means, first of all, that Filipinos would have to brace
for more taxes that will come from their own pockets.
And all
that means the next BIR chief will have to work 24/7,
cope with all the brickbats thrown her way and prove
Buñag wrong.
Every
BIR commissioner must deal with the reality that a big
percentage of Filipinos do not pay their income taxes
because they are so poor they can barely make ends meet.
Or they are so rich that they can hire accountants who
can manipulate the figures and pay much less to the BIR.
As for
those in the middle class, they would rather not pay
their taxes to the government because they believe this
would be stolen by corrupt bureaucrats, anyway. If
there’s fear of—and loathing for—the taxman in this
country, it’s because the BIR as an agency has built an
unsavory reputation over the years.
The
other side of the coin, however, is that the government
would grind to a complete halt without taxes paid by
individuals and corporations. Without taxes, there would
be no public schools, no barangay health centers, no
mass housing. In short, society would simply fall apart
and the life of every Filipino would be solitary, poor,
nasty, brutish and short.
That’s
why a study commissioned by Malacañang to analyze
revenue patterns is timely and appropriate. According to
Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran, the Palace wants a
detailed analysis of which taxes contribute the most to
the national treasury and why taxes pass or fail certain
benchmarks.
Accessing and analyzing tax data is important in
explaining which taxes fared poorly or well versus
certain macroeconomic variables such as inflation or
interest rates.
Be that
as it may, we hope that the Arroyo administration’s
economic team can get their act together and be able to
take other decisive steps to improve tax collection. In
this vein, the move of the Bureau of Customs to crack
down on traders who make fraudulent claims of
export-related tax credits is a commendable move.
Beyond
plugging the loopholes that allow taxpayers, both
individual and corporate, to evade the payment of the
correct taxes or to avoid paying taxes altogether, the
other thing is for the BIR and the Bureau of Customs to
cleanse their ranks of the corrupt and the undesirable.
That may
be easier said than done, but it is high time to ferret
out the crooks both big and small in the BIR and the BOC
and instill in everyone in the two revenue collection
agencies the fear of the law so that the government can
build more public infrastructure and deliver vital
social services to the people, particularly the poor,
and sustain the gains made in economic development.
We can
only wish officer-in-charge Lilian Hefti, the erstwhile
BIR deputy commissioner with 29 years in the career
service, the best of luck as she tries to meet the
government’s tax collection targets. Hefti’s
performance, according to Teves, will be evaluated after
three months, and that “there is a big chance for her to
get the position permanently.”
We hope
she rises to the challenge and acquits herself well,
that is, prove that not all BIR commissioners are doomed
to fail. |
