BIR misses May tax goal

MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collected P88.15 billion in May, 1.7 percent below the P89.72 billion target for the period as the agency still needs to improve its collection efforts.

BIR collection stood at P79.05 billion in May last year.

Nevertheless, BIR Commissioner Kim Henares said the agency would continue to step up efforts to be able to raise enough funds for social services and infrastructure.

Henares recognized that there are a lot of measures that still needs to be done.  

“It is unfortunate that we were not able to attain our revenue goal for May because the country needs every single centavo for its poverty reduction programs. We will do all that we can in order to improve our performance in the coming months as well as for the longer term,” she said.

Earlier this year, the BIR put in place a package of reforms to improve its business processes and systems.

It has come up with a strategic plan that would list priority programs that would serve as the BIR’s guide for reforms over the next five years.

The May collections brought the BIR’s five-month revenues to P391.09 billion, 13.7 percent or P46.99 billion higher than year-ago collections of P344.10 billion.

For the whole year, the BIR is tasked to collect P940 billion or higher than last year’s goal of P860 billion.

The agency, which accounts for 70 percent of state revenues, has been stepping up efforts to boost collections.

It would be utilizing $54.30 million from the United States Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) for reforms, particularly the modernization of the revenue collection system.

The $54.30 million is part of the $434 million grant from the US MCC.

Under the agreement, the government would use part of the grant for its Revenue Administration Reform Project (RARP).

The project would be used to reduce “tax evasion and corruption” through reforms at BIR.