BoC employees to receive P539-M reward

Employees of the Bureau of Customs will soon get their much-awaited reward of P539 million after BoC surpassed its collection target last year by P2.2 billion. BoC Deputy Commissioner Reynaldo Umali, chief of the bureau’s Revenue Collection and Management Group, said on Thursday that he would soon meet with the Development Budget Coordinating Committee to formalize the approval of the reward. Based on BoC records, the bureau collected P198.176 billion in 2006, which was 1.1 percent higher than its target. Umali said 80 percent or P431 million of the P539-million reward would be distributed to 3,382 officials and employees of the BoC, as cash incentive. If the reward would be equally divided, each employee would get about P127,000. The remaining 20 percent or P108 million will form part of the employees’ non-cash incentive. The BoC said the amount would be used for office improvements to enhance the performance of the agency’s personnel. The reward will come from the Revenue Incentives Fund created through the Lateral Attrition Law or Republic Act 9335 signed into law by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in January 2005. R.A. 9335 provides a system of reward and punishment for personnel of the BoC and the Bureau of Internal Revenue to encourage them to be more efficient in collecting taxes. - GMANews.TV