DOF to restructure BIR, BOC to improve revenue collection

The Department of Finance will focus on restructuring the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to improve tax collections.

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said this is necessary since Congress is not keen on approving new taxes.

“What we can do is to improve collections. Congress is not keen on passing new taxes so there has to be some restructuring within the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs,” he said.

He said that instead of pushing for new taxes, the government will instead work on improving the implementation of existing tax laws.

The Finance Chief said that the removal of the BIR and the BOC from the salary standardization law can be seriously considered to improve the performance of the two agencies.

Republic Act 6758 or the Salary Standardization Act sets a uniform salary rate for all government employees but some state-owned corporations and financial institutions including the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) are exempt from this rule.

The BIR has roughly 11,000 employees while the BOC has around 4,000 employees.

The BIR, the government’s main revenue agency, has a target to collect P845 billion this year while the BOC, the second largest revenue office, has a collection target of P245 billion.

The two revenue agencies have been missing their targets due to a host of factors such as corruption and rampant smuggling.

However, the pressure on the two offices to improve performance is getting heavier as the government hopes to wipe out its budget deficit this year from decades of posting budget gaps.

Last year, the government incurred a deficit of P9.4 billion, way below the programmed budget deficit ceiling of P63 billion.