Gov't starts online tax payment program

Filipinos may now pay their taxes online using the electronic fund transfer (EFT) service PESONet, the Department of Finance (DOF) announced Tuesday.

In an e-mailed statement, the DOF said the PESONet service was launched by its attached agency the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), with the Land Bank of the Philippines and the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) as the pilot participating banks.

"Under this initiative, the BIR is the first government biller institution to pilot and adopt the interoperable digital bills payment service for tax collection," said Finance Undersecretary Antonette Tionko.

Launched in November 2017, PESONet or the Philippine EFT System and Operations Network, is the first automated clearing house of the country.

The service allows individuals to digitally transfer funds to any bank in the network, reflected within the same banking day.

According to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, the recent development is seen to improve the ease of doing business in the country and in turn, attract more investments.

"The goal of the PESONet-enabled project is to set up an interoperable digital bills payment service that is safe, reliable, efficient, and will benefit a greater number of Filipinos," he said.

Moving forward, Tionko said the government plans to expand the service to other local lenders aside from the LandBank and RCBC.

"The success of the pilot will allow the BSP to confidently approve the expansion of this service to all interested financial and commercial institutions," she said. — MDM, GMA News