BIR collects P101 B more than previous year

MANILA, Philippines - As of November 2011, taxes collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue have bested last year’s performance by more than P101 billion.

From January to November this year, internal revenue generated by the BIR had reached P854.5 billion. Compared to the taxes generated during the same period last year, which amounted to P753.3 billion, this year’s performance has shown a marked improvement, growing by more than 13.4 percent year-on-year.

For the month of November alone, the bureau’s collections reached P92.7 billion. This figure is also P10.3 billion higher than the taxes generated for the same month last year when the BIR collected a total of P82.4 billion. Growth for November reached 12.5 percent year-on-year.

After 11 months, the BIR has kept itself abreast with the target. From January to November the bureau’s target is placed at P860.3 billion. With this, actual collections are down by only 0.68 percent or by about P5.8 billion in cumulative terms.

BIR Commissioner Kim Henares remains hopeful that the year-end target of the Bureau could still be met. While the deficit may seem small in percentage terms, she prefers to look at the collection shortfall in terms of value “my people at the BIR are fully focused on recouping the 5.8 billion deficit by the end of December”.