BIR collection falls P67 billion below target

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collected only P778 billion in 2008, or P67 billion below the official target of P845 billion, its top official said yesterday on the sidelines of the agency’s Oplan Kandado operations.

BIR commissioner Sixto Esquivias IV attributed the lower-than-expected collections to the global financial turmoil which slowed down businesses and to an increase in personal tax exemptions which started in July last year.

“We are still feeling the impact of personal exemptions and the exemption of minimum wage earners,” Esquivias said.

The implementation of Republic Act 9504 started in July. The law exempted minimum wage earners from tax payments and increased the personal exemptions of regular income earners.

Esquivias said the BIR would be stepping its efforts to boost revenues. However, he said the agency should be given more realistic revenue goals in light of the ongoing global financial turmoil.

For 2009, the BIR is tasked to collect P968.3 billion but the interagency Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC), the group that sets the country’s macroeconomic assumptions, recommended downward revisions to the collection goals of the BIR and the Bureau of Customs.

In December 2008 alone, the BIR likely collected at least P53 billion, preliminary data from the agency showed.  This is significantly below the November 2008 collections amounting to P76.745 billion, data from the agency also showed.

BIR officials said the agency would put in place measures to help the government raise revenues.

One such measure is to expand its taxpayers’ database. Preliminary data matching activities the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the country’s corporate regulator, showed that 12 percent or more than 70,000 corporations registered with the SEC are not listed in the BIR’s database.

Esquivias is also spearheading the BIR’s Oplan Kandado campaign. This program seeks to close businesses that have not been paying the right taxes to the BIR.