BIR outlines plan to achieve collection target

Key strategies have been outlined by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), which accounts for three-fourths of state tax revenues, to support a proposed P830-billion collection target for the year. In a one-page memorandum submitted on Wednesday to Executive Secretary Eduardo R. Ermita, BIR Commissioner Joel L. Tan-Torres said the proposals, as well as a morale boost from having exceeded last month’s goal, would enable the bureau to achieve the mark. "The BIR is now ready to implement several tax enhancement measures to meet the P830-billion target for calendar year 2010," the memorandum read. "With the tax enhancement measures and the morale-boosting collection performance ending the year 2009, the BIR is confident that it will meet its collection target for the year 2010," it added. The proposed measures include: • Strengthening of the Run After Tax Evaders Program. The BIR chief has said he would include the filing of tax evasion cases in evaluating the performance of revenue personnel. The bureau is also eyeing a partnership with the Justice department to allow the latter’s lawyers to handle tax evasion cases. • High-visibility public awareness programs regarding taxpayer service and enforcement campaigns to improve compliance. • Close monitoring of recently-enacted tax-eroding measures and investment incentives programs to minimize revenue losses. • The conduct of vigorous tax campaigns. Tan-Torres has said this would involve initiatives such as collecting withholding taxes from campaign materials suppliers and the "Rest in Peace" program, which seeks to boost the estate tax take. • The collection of "big-ticket items." • Finance Assistant Secretary Teresa F. Habitan said the P830-billion goal, lower than the initial P875.1 billion, still had to be approved by economic managers. "It is an emerging figure. We will still meet to approve it," Habitan said in the vernacular. Finance undersecretary Gil S. Beltran told Reuters yesterday that economic managers were considering lowering the tax bureau’s goal to P830 billion, while the Bureau of Customs’s target may be pegged at P275 billion, down from P309.5 billion. "The numbers are still preliminary. We will announce the final figures once we have approved them," Beltran said, adding the government is taking into account the weak 2009 performance in setting this year’s targets. The BIR said it missed its 2009 target by 7 percent as a slowing economy eroded revenues. The agency said its tax take last year reached P743.4 billion, versus the goal of P798.5 billion. The Customs bureau also looks set to miss its 2009 target of P273.3 billion, with January-November collections only reaching P201.4 billion. The government expects to incur a wider-than-expected budget deficit of P293 billion, or 3.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), this year, as the country funds reconstruction projects after last year’s typhoons and as the revenue take remains weak. Manila was originally looking at limiting this year’s fiscal shortfall to P233.4 billion, or 2.8 percent of GDP, from a projected deficit of at least P290 billion in 2009. To bridge this year’s budget gap, the Philippines is looking to raise $3.8 billion overseas, $2 billion of which would come from bond issues. It plans to raise an initial $1-$1.5 billion by selling existing bonds due in 2020 and 2034. — reports from ADBR and Reuters