|
By Maricel V. Cruz, Reporter
The joint House Committees on Ways and Means,
and on Oversight are urged to conduct an inquiry in aid of
legislation into the P53.7-billion revenue shortfall incurred by the
Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) last year.
The shortfall was reportedly incurred at the
same time that the government moved to trim down the budget deficit
and even resorted to selling of prime states assets to source
additional funds.
Reps. Roilo Golez of Parañaque, Marcelino
Teodoro of Marikina City and Juan Edgardo Angara of Aurora called
for a motu propio investigation to determine who were responsible
for the BIR’s failure to meet its revenue targets for 2007.
“I will ask for motu propio inquiry by the
House Committee on Ways and Means and the oversight committees. We
should establish who should be considered responsible for the
shortfall, from the level of Regional Director to Commissioner all
the way up to Finance Secretary. We should also ascertain if targets
are realistic,” Golez said in an interview.
In separate interviews, the three lawmakers
suggested to the joint House committees to summon BIR Commissioner
Lilian Hefti, Deputy Commissioner for Operations Nelson Aspe, and
officials from the Department of Finance (DoF), among others, to
shed light on the issue.
“BIR should be investigated by Congress
regarding their shortfall as this would affect the integrity of our
budget which leads to the nondelivery of basic services to
Filipinos,” Teodoro said.
For his part, Angara deplored the annual problem
on revenue shortfall, saying the problem would certainly affect the
government’s delivery of social services.
“There is a serious tax collection and
enforcement problem. Congress should look into it using oversight
function. Mababa iyung tax effort kung ikukumpara sa ibang mga bansa
at nakakalungkot, ayon kasi sa mga experts, ang VAT [Value-Added
Tax] ay isa sa pinaka-simple na ikolekta. Maaaring dapat gawing
simple ang tax system pagdating sa income tax dahil mataas ang
collection noong dati pa nabago ang tax system sa late 1990’s
[There is a lower tax effort compared to other countries, and this
is lamentable since according to the experts, the VAT is one of the
simplest to collect. We might have to make the tax system simpler
when it comes to income tax since we had a higher collection before
we changed the tax system in the late 1990s.],” Angara pointed
out.
Earlier reports revealed that in a command
conference Wednesday afternoon at the BIR national office in Quezon
City, OIC Assistant Commissioner Corazon C. Pangcog, who heads the
Collection Service, presented the BIR Collection Performance from
January to December 2007, which also showed that the Bureau missed
its targets in all tax types.
According to the yearend report, the BIR
collected a total of P712.098 billion from the target of P765.859
billion, incurring a shortfall of P53.761 billion for 2007. It
missed its target by P39.574 billion from January to June, and by
P15.186 billion from July to December.
At the same time, shortfalls were incurred in
all tax types. The Value-Added Tax (VAT) collection was short by
P38.187 billion, including the P11.959-billion Reformed Value-Added
Tax (RVAT).
Income tax collection was short by P9.715
billion; percentage tax by P4.098 billion; and excise tax by P3.915
billion.
|
