P830-billion revenue goal doable - BIR

MANILA, Philippines - Newly appointed Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares said the 2010 revenue goal of P830 billion set by the interagency Development Budget Coordination Committee for the agency is doable and does not need revisions.

“I don’t believe in revisions. It’s for you to work. I don’t like revising upward or downward. I’m sure it was studied well and not plucked out from nowhere,” Henares said.

As such, she said, she would not be asking for a downward revision in BIR’s revenue goal for the year.

The BIR chief also said she would put in place measures that would broaden the tax base and hopefully bring the tax effort to 15 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in a year, an improvement from the previous administration’s target to bring this to 13 percent of GDP.

She said improving the tax administration would be a priority instead of slapping new taxes.

“We have to make sure the tax base is broadened,” he said.

The tax effort measures the government’s ability to increase tax collection that is commensurate with the growth of the economy.

“The goal is to increase this to 15 percent in a year’s time,” said Henares, who served as deputy commissioner during the time of BIR Commissioner Guillermo Parayno.

In the first quarter of the year, the government’s tax effort improved to 12.3 percent of GDP from the 11.6 percent of GDP recorded in the same period in 2009.

The improvement in the tax effort stemmed from an improvement in the tax collection efforts of the BIR and the Bureau of Customs.

The BIR’s tax effort rose to nine percent in the first three months from 8.9 percent in the same period in 2009 due to tax administration measures.

Similarly, the BOC’s tax effort rose to 3.13 percent during the period from 2.48 percent a year ago as the agency benefitted from the 32.7 percent rise in imports. However, it lost P2.3 billion from the government’s implementation of free trade agreements and another P2 billion from the appreciation of the peso against the dollar.

In 2009, the government’s tax effort slid to 12.8 percent or way below the programmed 14.4 percent for the period due to a host of reasons including rampant corruption, weakened economy and the implementation of the so-called revenue-eroding measures.