IMF says BIR’s collection target of P403 B for 2001 is more realistic

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to collect some P403 billion in tax revenues next year, lower than the P441-billion target set by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and Congress.

Government sources said the IMF sees the P403-billion revenue target for 2001 "as more realistic’ than what the DBM and the legislative body want. "They (IMF) know the (economic and political) constraints," the sources said.

According to sources, the IMF shares the same sentiment with the BIR. "The IMF agrees with the BIR management team that the real economic situation of the country should be considered in setting up revenue collection goals," they said.

The sources said that after considering all its revenue generating measures, the BIR could not commit higher than the P403-billion target for next year. "The BIR told Congress that there is a need to set a more realistic target because higher revenue goal would be counter-productive," he said.

Sources said the IMF believes the BIR should implement various tax revenue enhancement measures involving drastic administrative and legislative reforms if it wants to collect more taxes.

However, the sources said such reforms will need a lot of political will to be implemented since these entail drastic moves such as massive reorganization and restructuring of the BIR.

Specifically, the sources said these reforms might lead to massive streamlining of the BIR’s workforce.

The sources said based on the proposed reforms, the BIR’s regional district offices (RDOs) would be reduced from the present 115 to 70 and the regional directors would be trimmed down from 19 to 10.

The Lateral Attrition Bill, the sources said, should also be put in place coinciding with the proposed integration of BIR’s collecting district offices.

Another proposed reform, according to the sources, involves "depoliticizing" the BIR. This proposal is patterned after a Singaporean model wherein the BIR will have its own board of directors from both the private and public sectors, and it will have its own budget.