BIR’s January collection up by at least 10%

The Bureau of Internal Revenue’s tax collection for January is at least 10 percent more than what it had collected in the same period last year, its top official said yesterday. 

 “We are still finalizing the figures but our projections show that we posted a double digit growth compared to collections in January last year,” Internal Revenue Commissioner Lilian Hefti said.  

In January last year, the BIR collected P49.73 billion.  

The BIR, the government’s main revenue earner, has yet to announce the official collection figures for January.  

Its Large Taxpayers Service, however, has already reported that it had collected P32.060 billion for the month of January or P1.470 billion higher than the previous month’s collection of P30.590 billion. 

The January collection is 4.80 percent higher than the previous month’s figure and is also P3.886 billion more than the P28.173 billion recorded in the same period last year, latest data from the BIR showed.   

Hefti attributed the better-than-expected figures to the group’s enhanced efforts.  

Of the entire Large Taxpayers Service division, the Large Taxpayers Regular Group collected P18.410 billion or P689.761 million higher than its collection target for the month of P17.719 billion.  

The figure is P2.077 billion-higher than its January 2007 collection of P16.331 billion or a growth rate of 13.79 percent. 

The BIR, the government’s main revenue earner has been trying to boost collections to help state coffers.  

The National Government posted a budget deficit of P9.4 billion last year against the program of P63 billion.  

The BIR, meanwhile, collected P711.6 billion in 2007 or P54.3 billion lower than the program of P765.9 billion.  In December alone, the BIR collected only P63.9 billion in December or below the target for the month of P64.91 billion.