2011 target still attainable - BIR

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the government’s main revenue agency, said there is still a chance it would meet its full-year collection goal of P940 billion.

BIR Deputy Commissioner Nelson Aspe said the goal is still achievable even with just a few days left in 2011.

“We believe, there is still a chance,” Aspe said.

He said that enhanced measures against tax evaders such as Oplan Kandado and the filing of tax evasion cases before the Department of Justice (DOJ) have been paying off.

Even with the January to November collections of the BIR falling short of the target, Aspe said economic activities in December as a result of the holiday season could boost taxes.

As of November 2011, the BIR’s collections rose by more than P101 billion compared to a year ago as the agency collected P854.5 billion from January to November.

“Compared to the taxes generated during the same period last year, which amounted to P753.3 billion, this year’s performance has shown a marked improvement growing by more than 13.4 percent year-on-year, data from the BIR showed.

In November alone, the BIR’s collections reached P92.7 billion, which is P10.3 billion higher than the taxes generated for the same month last year when the BIR collected a total of P82.4 billion.

Growth for November reached 12.5 percent year-on-year.

From January to November, collections of the bureau are just down by only 0.68 percent or about P5.8 billion lower than the target of P860.3 billion.

The BIR said the tax enhancement efforts would continue to improve next year as the agency is tasked to collect a higher target of P1.066 trillion.