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By Chino S. Leyco, Reporter
THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) expects
record tax collections this month.
Deputy Commissioner Nelson Aspe said the bureau
sees a tax take of P80.6 billion, or 6.4 percent higher than the
P75.77 billion in the same month last year.
If it meets its target, the agency will surpass
the highest monthly collection of P79.58 billion recorded in August
last year, he said.
The internal target, however, is below the
P110.5 billion goal set by the Development and Budget Coordinating
Committee (DBCC) for the month.
The bureau put up “BIR on Wheels” and
“Person on Wheels” all over the country to attend to
taxpayers’ needs in time for the April 15 deadline for filing of
income tax returns.
To increase collection, the BIR has authorized
banks to receive tax payments from both depositors and
non-depositors.
The DBCC set the bureau’s full-year goal at
P845 billion, 18.4 percent higher than the P713.6 billion last year,
but the BIR is lobbying for a cut to P782 billion.
For the first quarter, the agency’s tax take
increased 13.9 percent to P163 billion from P143.1 billion in the
same period last year.
In March alone, preliminary figures showed that
the BIR’s collection inched up 6.3 percent to P55.4 billion from
P52.13 billion in the same month last year.
The BIR is under pressure to meet the target in
line with the finance department’s plan to have a balanced-budget
this year after a decade of funding shortfalls.
The country’s budget deficit widened to
P32.9 billion in the first two months of the year from P18.6 billion
in the same period last year despite a sharp increase in tax
collections.
In a separate briefing, Tom Crouch, Asian
Development Bank (ADB) deputy director general for Southeast Asia,
said the government has to lock in the country’s economic gains,
and build on them so the Philippines can weather the US slowdown.
He also noted the decline in the tax effort last
year, as the overall dip in the deficit relied more on
non-sustainable privatization receipts.
“Structural erosion of the tax effort must be
addressed,” he added.
Last year’s fiscal improvement was largely due
to a P90 billion windfall from the sale of state assets, which is
unlikely to be replicated this year.
Crouch said tax collection has to improve to
finance an increase in public spending on infrastructure and social
services to five percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2010.
The ADB and other foreign donors have been
pushing the government to complete its fiscal reform program to
secure its recent gains. Among the pending reform measures is a bill
that would streamline the amount and types of tax perks extended to
investors.
Substitute bill on tax perks set
The House of Representatives’ Ways and Means
Committee recently proposed a substitute bill aimed at streamlining
tax perks that have eroded the government’s collection efforts.
In a public hearing last week, the technical
working group of the committee came up with a consolidated version
of four incentive rationalization bills. Adoption of the new
proposal however is awaiting the results of a meeting between the
committee and the finance and trade departments scheduled on April
21.
The Joint Foreign Chambers is endorsing the
substitute bill. The Philippines has about 30 laws on fiscal
incentives.
The finance department has been pushing for a
“sunset” provision but the trade department instead called for a
review every 10 years to determine the need for certain incentives.
-- With Katrina Mennen A. Valdez
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