BIR expects P63-B shortfall this year

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) expects to collect only P782 billion this year or P63 billion lower than the agency’s 2008 revenue target of P845 billion.

In a letter to the Department of Finance (DOF), Internal Revenue Commissioner Lilian Hefti said the BIR is projected to collect only P782 billion for the whole of 2008.

Hefti made the computations based on the average monthly growth rates in actual collections from 1997 to 2007.

The P782 billion is 9.83 percent higher than the BIR’s collections last year of P712 billion. However, the agency incurred a shortfall of P53 billion last year against the target of P765 billion.

The BIR has not been meeting its collection targets. It has been appealing to Finance Secretary Margarito Teves for a lower target.

Teves has said there was no need yet to cut the agency’s targets and instead suggested improving other aspects of the BIR’s operations.

In her letter, Hefti said the P782 billion projection is still for further analysis as to how much is feasible to be collected and in what months they are likely to be realized.

Based on the BIR’s computations, collections could reach P53.793 billion in January, P44.607 billion in February, P53.381 billion in March for a total of P154.781 billion in the first quarter of the year.

Furthermore, the BIR expects to collect: P80.630 billion in April; P76.617 billion in May; P53.369 billion in June; P62.862 billion in July; P92.414 billion in August; P52.895 billion in September; P56.756 billion in October; P80.971 billion in November; and P70.785 billion in December;

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, chairman of the Senate committee on finance, earlier blamed the BIR’s poor performance to advance tax payments it made last year.

Enrile said that last year, the BIR collected in advance the tax obligations of some companies to appear as if the agency was meeting its quarterly targets.

This, Enrile said, left the agency with a smaller amount of tax to collect this year.

The BIR, however, has already denied allegations of frontloading.

Teves, for his part, told the BIR to study its balance sheets first and determine the factors that contribute to its difficulties before seeking a reduction in targets.