The Bureau of Internal Revenue has reported to congressmen that its collection in the first semester of the year has been satisfactory as it exceeded its collection target by P33.9 billion, or 3.72 percent.
At a hearing of the House Committee on Ways and Means, chaired by Rep. Estrellita Suansing of Nueva Ecija, BIR Commissioner Caesar Dulay expressed satisfaction over the agency’s collection record, saying that it collected P947 billion. The agency’s collection target for the first six months of the year was P913 billion.
Suansing’s panel conducted the hearing in response to House Resolutions 359 and 2014, which call for an investigation, in aid of legislation, on the proper implementation of Republic Act 9335 or the Attrition Act of 2005.
However, upon questioning by Suansing, BIR Assistant Commissioner for Collection Services Alfredo Misajon admitted that the agency has been missing its target since 2016, with a deficit of 2.73 percent in 2016 and 2.65 percent in 2017.
“We are now strictly monitoring the filing and payments of taxpayers. In short, it is the very close monitoring that makes the improvement in the collection effort, as far as the BIR is concerned,” Deputy Commissioner for Operations Arnel Guballa said.
Guballa also revealed that the agency has implemented some innovations that could have also assisted in enhancing its performance—the campaign against tax evasion and “Oplan Kandado,” which aims to strengthen the BIR’s imposition of prescribed administrative sanctions for non-compliant taxpayers.
However, Suansing questioned the effectiveness of these alleged innovations, saying that there was P30.06 billion or 8.83-percent deficit in collection of BIR regional offices.
Guballa explained that the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law “significantly affected the regions because of the lowering of income tax.”
Suansing noted that the TRAIN Law could have even been the reason why the agency exceeded its target in the first semester of this year. “I can attribute your achieving your goal to the Tax Reform. It is not because of your own effort, I am just worried that you have posted negative in regional revenues as against the large number of taxpayers,” she said.