Philippine Tax Academy launching online portal

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Tax Academy (PTA) is set to launch next week its online portal where the government’s revenue personnel can access its courses, according to the Department of Finance.

Citing a report by Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran, the DOF said the PTA’s online portal, which will serve as the gateway for its e-learning courses, will be launched on July 31 and be opened to newly hired and existing revenue personnel starting next month.

The DOF said PTA’s competency management system (CMS) framework will also be launched at the same time.

According to the DOF, the government is also planning to appoint an acting president for the PTA, together with officer-in-charge (OIC)-chancellors, who may come from the Bureaus of Internal Revenue (BIR), Customs (BOC) and Local Government Finance (BLGF).

They will be tasked to supervise the course development and training delivery of the institution.

Launched in February last year, the PTA seeks to provide continuing education to the country’s revenue collectors and administrators to improve their competitiveness, sharpen their commitment to their profession and raise their ethical standards.

The establishment of the academy is in compliance with Republic Act 10143, which states that the academy should serve as the country’s learning institution for tax collectors and administrators from the government and selected applicants from the private sectors.

“All existing officials and personnel of the BIR, the BOC and the BLGF shall be required to undergo the re-tooling and enhancement seminars and training programs to be conducted by the Philippine Tax Academy,” the law stated.

It also requires all employee-applicants “to pass the basic courses before they can be hired whether on contractual or permanent status.”

Earlier, Beltran reported to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez that the PTA has developed 14 competency-based online courses to be offered to new and existing customs personnel.

He said the PTA is also completing training courses for the BLGF, as well as executive courses on revenue mobilization for officials of the BOC and BIR.

These executive courses will cover assessment and revenue collections, customs management and administration, tax administration, international tax affairs, fiscal policy formulation, and public finance management compliance.

Beltran said the PTA would also offer a training course on real property compliance and schedule of market values for BLGF employees, as well as a local government finance executive course for newly elected officials.