MANILA, Philippines — PayMaya Philippines Inc., the digital financial services arm of PLDT’s Voyager Innovations, is powering the government’s lead tax collection agency to make payments more convenient by allowing tax payers to remit payments through electronic channels.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is set to work with PayMaya to offer digital payment touchpoints that will be made available to all Filipinos nationwide.
Initially, PayMaya account holders can remit their tax payments to BIR through the Pay Bills feature of the PayMaya app.
PayMaya said it is also working with the government agency to extend digital tax payments to other channels, such as through its online portal and its revenue district offices nationwide.
By having tax payments available to its users, PayMaya said it makes it even more convenient for taxpayers to fulfill their civic duties because they can now do this anytime and anywhere using only their mobile phones.
“Having more digital payment options is part of the government’s efforts to drive ease of doing business in the country and help make tax payments more convenient for Filipinos. With our partnership with PayMaya, even those who are not within reach of a bank branch can make their tax payments on time, wherever they may be,” Internal Revenue Commissioner Caesar Dulay said.
The collaboration between the BIR and PayMaya is in support of the government’s efforts to digitize many of its services to improve efficiencies, reach its revenue collection goals, and deliver better public services to Filipinos nationwide.
PayMaya said the partnership is supported by the E-PESO project of the United States Agency for International Development, which works with the government and private sector to achieve a 20-fold increase in e-payment usage for a more inclusive access to financial products.
“With agencies like the BIR opening digital payment channels for their constituents, the quality and efficiency of government services are vastly improved, which will help drive our competitiveness as a country. We at PayMaya are proud to be partners with the government in not just improving service delivery, but also ensuring the transparency of services with the help of digital technology,” PayMaya founder and CEO Orlando Vea said.
PayMaya is the only fintech company in the country that offers integrated consumer and merchant payment solutions with the widest on-ground branch network.
PayMaya is expected to have 80,000 merchant partners by year end.
It is the first to give millions of Filipinos an e-wallet that allows them to pay cashless transactions at any time of the day, anywhere in the world, and from any device.
PayMaya is currently processing over P200 billion worth of transactions annually, and expects to expand the amount by five times to P1 trillion by 2023.
Last week, PayMaya unveiled an enhanced mobile app, exciting new features, more merchant partner promos, as well as cashback promos and discounts to further accelerate digital payments adoption in the country.
“Our goal is to make every Filipinos embrace digital payments by multiplying the benefits of going cashless. Expect more features and services to roll out in the coming months. Our goal is to make the payments experience of every Filipino hassle-free and more secure,” PayMaya chief operating officer and managing director Paolo Azzola said.