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AFTER the Bureau of Customs, it’s now the Bureau of Internal
Revenue’s (BIR) turn to seek a reduction in its collection target
this year.
The BIR is asking the Department of Finance to
slash its goal to below P800 billion, or close to the P712.61
billion target for last year. The bureau’s original program is set
at P844.95 billion this year.
Based on the emerging actual revenue collection
of the BIR in 2007, the agency was short of P53.3 billion of its
full year goal.
Finance Secretary Margarito B. Teves earlier
dismissed requests by Customs for a similar cut in its collection
goal, adding it is too early to make an adjustment.
He said the bureaus have to come up with a
balance sheet outlining the factors that will contribute to their
difficulties in attaining targets, and propose measures to address
these.
The BIR, which accounts for at least 60 percent
of the government’s revenues, is under pressure to increase its
collection, after it fell short of its target.
The government had hoped to trim its budaget
deficit to 0.9 percent of the economy, as measured by the
country’s gross domestic product (GDP) last year, before it moves
to a balanced budget by the end of this year.
It turned in a budget surplus of P54.1 billion
in November alone, from a deficit of P5.8 billion in the same period
in 2006.
That month’s fiscal performance led the
government to reverse the P58.3-billion deficit in 2006 to a
P12.6-billion surplus last year, putting it on track to balance its
budget ahead of an original program. This feat was largely due to
its privatization program.
The government raised P47 billion from the sale
of its 60-percent stake in Philippine National Oil Co.-Energy
Development Corp. Had it failed to sell the said interest in the
country’s largest geothermal energy producer, the government would
have recorded a P35-billion deficit last November.
-- Chino S. Leyco
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