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THE
government is finally making headway in its revenue
goals for July, having collected P57.83 billion during
the month when at least P57.8 billion was expected, the
Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said on Monday.
BIR
chief Lilian Hefti told reporters that they exceeded the
goal by P30 million, even as the bureau unveiled plans
to use several technology-based systems to spot tax
cheats.
The
amount included revenues generated from the sale of
government securities (GS) collected by the Bureau of
Treasury during the period, she added.
Excluding tax proceeds from the sale of GS for July, the
BIR collected P56.6 billion versus a goal of P55.4
billion. “We collected P1.2-billion more,” Hefti said.
President Arroyo congratulated the bureau for meeting
its target for July and directed it to focus on large
taxpayers to help it meet its year-end target of P730
billion.
“Focus
on the large taxpayers’ unit because they represent, as
[BIR Officer in Charge] Lilian [Hefti] said, 64.5
percent of the target. But I also like to congratulate
the BIR for meeting your target in July, [the] first
month in the year,” the President said in her opening
statement at a command conference with officials at the
BIR building in Quezon City.
A
visibly upbeat Mrs. Arroyo said in a briefing on
technology-based tools to improve tax collections that
based on the exchanges at the conference, “all the units
performed” the past month.
“Everybody exceeded [their] targets in July. And it is
the first time the large taxpayers’ unit ever exceeded
its target,” she said.
From a
broader perspective, however, the BIR was still short of
its P408.9-billion target for the January to July
period, with actual seven-month collections hitting only
P373.6 billion.
This
means the BIR will have to work still harder in August
and recover the P35.3 billion it failed to collect in
the first seven months.
Hefti
said BIR performance, inclusive of revenues from the
sale of GS from January to July, amounted to only P392.6
billion, short of the P431.1-billion goal for the
period.
Netting
out the collection from the sale of GS, the BIR
performance from January to July still fell short of the
goal of P408.9 billion as actual collection for the
period reached only P373.6 billion. But Hefti insisted
that the much-maligned bureau should be able to deliver
its full-year commitment of P765 billion on account of a
number of collection-enhancement measures they have
instituted for the purpose.
In July
alone, the BIR exchanged relevant data with the
Insurance Commission, the Securities and Exchange
Comission and the various local government units,
enabling the agency to cross-check taxes paid by
businesses and individuals.
Specific
audits were also undertaken on companies registered by
the Board of Investments and with the Philippine Export
Zone Authority with respect to claims on income tax
holiday.
More
stringent monitoring of very large taxpayers should also
boost collection in the coming months, Hefti said.
After
the command conference, meanwhile, the President said
that BIR officials reported P5.4 billion in potential
proceeds from cases involving big tax evaders, which is
why such cases should be prioritized over small cases.
She said
that based on reports on the BIR’s Run After Tax Evaders
(RATE) program, the BIR is “concentrating on small
cases” where “the biggest case is P150 million and there
are cases of P2.7 million, whereas there are
billion-peso cases that are languishing, and when asked
for the status they have to go around and ask who is in
charge of it.”
“It’s
not so much the deadline but the kind of cases that
should be given priority. The bigger cases should be
given priority. For the same peso of legal talent, you
are able to collect more,” she said.
The
President was presented with the working model of the
technology project that she mentioned in her last State
of the Nation Address, the Revenue Watch Dashboard and
the LGU Revenue Assurance Program, which are readily
implementable because of the BIR’s existing Data
Warehouse Infrastructure facility running on SAS.
The
Revenue Watch Dashboard is described as a
“state-of-the-art, online performance monitoring system
. . . that will monitor revenue collections against
targets at all levels of organization in the BIR, from
the national level to the examiners.”
It will
allow the BIR to monitor collection progress at any time
and identify areas with revenue leakages, returns with
inconsistencies, unusual patterns of tax declarations,
long-running and unresolved notices and audits; and
immediately act based on “accurate and relevant
information.”
The LGU
Revenue Assurance matches BIR data with LGU data using
existing BIR data quality and matching infrastructure
and reports inconsistent with taxpayers’ declarations to
“uncover revenue opportunities for both agencies.”
The
President said that the BIR’s “technological tools will
make it easier for them” to sustain the positive
performance.
The
President also ordered the Department of Finance, the
Department of Energy and the Presidential Commission on
Good Government (PCGG) to brief concerned committee
chairmen in Congress and other interested lawmakers on
the government’s privatization plans this year. (With
M. Gonzalez) |
