BIR sticks to P388-B collection target

The state collection agency, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is sticking to its full-year revenue collection target of P388 billion despite its lackluster performance for the first 10 months this year.

BIR Commissioner Rene Bañez said an extended tax amnesty program that lapses on Dec. 15, along with an intensified audit of some of the country’s biggest taxpayers, could still rake in an additional P5.5 billion in revenues.

Bañez said that so far, the BIR has collected about P1.8 billion from its tax amnesty program dubbed Voluntary Assessment Program (VAP) and this can even climb to P2 billion when the program ends.

On the other hand, another P3.5 billon is expected from the intensified audit of taxpayers that are believed to be understating their tax payments or obligations.

VAP was launched by the BIR to maximize collections this year and encourage voluntary compliance while "maintaining harmonious relations with taxpayers by minimizing inconvenience that comes with the threat of a tax audit."

Under the VAP scheme, those with tax cases will be allowed to pay a minimum amount representing a portion of their tax obligations. In exchange, government will drop the case against these delinquent taxpayers.

The VAP could be the last tax amnesty program of the Arroyo administration.

Earlier, Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho said he wants this to be the last such tax amnesty program since it only encourages tax evaders and cheats. Instead, government will be more forceful in implementing and filing tax cases against known and suspected tax evaders.

Moreover, the BIR despite its consistently poor performance since the start of the year, is standing pat on its target collection of P388 billion this year and P447-billion for 2002, Bañez said.

"It’s a collective decision of the economic team of Secretary Camacho and I cannot unilaterally ask them to downscale it," Bañez said.

The BIR collection has always been under par. From January to October, total collection was P320.203 billion, this is P2.933 billion short of the target of P323.136 billion.

Bañez said that other targets of the government have not changed.

Despite the global economic slowdown, the Arroyo administration is sticking to its gross domestic product (GDP) growth target of 4-4.7 for next year.

The inter-agency Development Budget Coordinating Council (DBCC) which sets the macroeconomic targets of the country decided not to revise next year’s targets even as economists said this will be difficult to achieve given the uncertainty brought about by the downturns in the global economic front, especially since the country’s major trading partner, the US, is already in technical recession.

A country is considered in recession if it had not had a positive growth in two consecutive quarters.

Bañez said he is optimistic that several measures initiated by the BIR to beef up its collection will allow the agency to achieve its 2002 budget.

These measures include expansion of the coverage of its large taxpayers’ unit which monitors the tax payments of the country’s Top 900 corporations. Large taxpayers contribute about 80 percent of total revenue collections.