BIR may still hit 2009 target

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) could hit its 2009 collection goal if the economy improves in the second quarter of the year.

The BIR, which collects roughly two-thirds of government revenues, has a collection goal of P798.5 billion for 2009, or P67 billion lower than the previous program of P865.57 billion.

“It will depend to a large extent on how the economy did in the second quarter of the year. If it improves significantly, it will make it easier for us to meet the target,” BIR Commissioner Sixto Esquivias IV told reporters yesterday on the sidelines of the BIR’s 105th anniversary.

Last June, the BIR collected P60.4 billion, or P7.4 billion more than the target for the month of P53 billion. The latest collection figure is P6.3 billion higher than the P54.1 billion generated in the same period last year.  

Esquivias attributed the improvement in collections to its Oplan Kandado Program, a program that penalizes business establishments that fail to pay the right amount of taxes.

Grounds for closure include failure to file a value added tax (VAT) return, understating taxable sales or receipts or failure to register the business. The closure of a business establishment shall last for at least five days and shall be in force until the taxpayer rectifies the violation. The order shall only be lifted by the BIR when there has been subsequent filing or amendment of returns with the payment of the tax as well as penalties.

In the first quarter of the year, gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by only 0.4 percent compared to the 3.9 percent growth recorded in the same period last year.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto has said that the economy’s performance in the second quarter is likely better than the 0.4 percent recorded in the first three months of the year because of growth in consumption and government spending.

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, for his part, said that on the fiscal side, there are no indications yet on the economy’s second quarter performance.

He said that the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC), the interagency group that sets the country’s macroeconomic assumptions, would again review the current assumptions after the release of the second quarter GDP in the last week of August.

“We need to review the macroeconomic assumptions again to see if we need to change the targets. If the economy is better than we thought, there may be an upward revision,” Teves said.