BIR misses P1.62T target for 2016

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) missed its collection target last year, collecting P1.575 trillion against a goal of P1.62 trillion.

 

BIR Commissioner Caesar Dulay attributed the shortfall to lack of manpower, which he said is affecting their collection efforts.

 

“In 2016, we had a collection of about P1.575 trillion. And this is about 95 percent of the goal—attainment of the goal that was given to the agency. This is about 9.5 percent growth rate against the 2015 collections,” Dulay said in a press briefing Thursday.

 

“The figures or the information I received is that traditionally after a collect—after an election year, the growth rate goes down. In our case, while we have not achieved the goal, we were able to at least maintain that growth rate in our collection efforts,” he added.

 

“We have to hire more people to do the collection. That’s why we’re asking Congress to get us out of the Salary Standardization Law.”

 

Dulay cited the case of the Cordillera Administrative Region, where there is only one collector for three to four municipalities.

 

“The ideal is one collector for one municipality,” the internal revenue chief said.

 

“Even in terms of their allowance, I have to discuss this with the Department of Budget and COA (Commission on Audit). Those are the challenges that we are facing,” he added.

 

Dulay believes exempting BIR personnel from the Salary Standardization Law would allow the tax bureau to attract competent lawyers, accountants and other professionals that can help boost revenue generation efforts.

 

“We need people, we need personnel. So part of our program for 2017 is to go into a massive recruitment mode,” he said.

 

At present, the BIR has about 9,000 personnel, less than half of the 21,000 approved positions.

 

“We need lawyers. The work of BIR is highly technical and you need competent personnel. We need to hire lawyers but our hiring rate for lawyers is only at about 30 to 40,000 compared to the hiring rate of the other agencies, which ranges from about 55 to 60,000,” Dulay said.

 

Dulay said leakages in the revenue collection might have been a factor for the shortfall even as he noted that 97 percent of their collection is voluntary compliance. Of the P1.575 trillion collected in 2016, income taxes totaled P924 billion while the rest came from excise, value added and percentage taxes.

 

The BIR, which accounts for more than 75 percent of government tax collections, is expected to collect P1.829 trillion this year. Dulay said tax collection should grow by 16 percent from last year to attain the target.

 

“Tax administration cannot do without law enforcement. Otherwise, there would be no voluntary compliance on the part of taxpayers. So we had to continue this program of running after tax evaders even if they contribute only about three percent of our total collections,” Dulay said.

 

The tax chief said the BIR is strengthening the Oplan Kandado, a program that shutters establishments with unpaid taxes. The tax bureau has also reduced the processing time for documents to make it easier for taxpayers to comply with existing regulations, Dulay added.

 

About 10 cases have been filed against tax evaders this year. There are about 400 cases against tax evaders that are pending with the Justice department.

 

Dulay admitted that many are calling him to discuss their tax cases.

 

“Some just come without any name-dropping. That’s why we also have an expanded compromise settlement program,” he said.

 

“I’m proud to say this, this is what the president told me. He said: ‘You continue doing your work. Our advantage is we do not owe them anything.’”