BIR expects to top first quarter collection goal by P3 billion

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), expect to top its first quarter collection goal of P157.7 billion by more than P3 billion on the back of enhanced tax administration measures, BIR Commissioner Joel Tan-Torres yesterday said.

He said that preliminary collections in March have so far exceeded revenues in the comparative period last year. From March 1 to 16, the BIR has so far collected P28 billion, or P8 billion more than the P20 billion it raised in the same period last year. The BIR has a collection target of P53.4 billion in March. 

In January, the BIR collected P61.67 billion or 5.67 billion higher than the P56-billion target for the month while in February, preliminary figures showed that the BIR collected P48.3 billion or above last month’s target of P48.2 billion. 

“With this trend, definitely, we will exceed our first quarter target,” Tan-Torres said, adding that a surplus of more than P3 billion is a “realistic assumption.”

Whether or not this rosy performance of the BIR would help rein in the government’s budget deficit in the first quarter of the year is still anybody’s guess.

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said it was too early to say whether the government would be able to meet its first quarter budget deficit target of P110.942 billion because the expenditure figures have yet to come in.

“We don’t know yet what the expenditure side looks like,” Tan-Torres said.

Tan-Torres said the BIR’s efforts to improve tax administration measures have been paying off as seen in the increase in collections.

These measures include a reinvigorated Run After Tax Evaders (RATE) Program, the implementation of its Oplan Kandado Program wherein business establishments with tax deficiencies are temporary padlocked, a lifestyle check on private citizens similar to what is done on public officials and tougher monitoring of bazaars or tiangges especially during the Christmas season last year. 

But Tan-Torres said that the government would not survive on collection efficiency alone, especially with the implementation of various so-called revenue-eroding measures such as the value-added tax (VAT) exemption on senior citizens and the reduction of corporate income tax from 35 percent to 30 percent which took effect this year.

The BIR is tasked to collect P830 billion this year, down from a previous program of P875 billion. The government’s budget deficit, meanwhile, is projected to hit P293 billion this year from the actual P298.5 billion recorded in 2009.