BIR tax collection January target exceeded by 3 percent

CEBU, Philippines - The Bureau of Internal Revenue in Cebu started the year right by not only achieving its target collection for the month of January but actually exceeding by 2.82 percent compared to its collection during the same period last year.

Lawyer Jose Tan, regional director of the BIR, reported that as of January 31, their collection has already reached over P747.5 million which is P20.5 million higher than January 2009’s collection. He said that the figure may still increase as more from the different district offices are yet to be consolidated.

In a report of Lilia Guillermo, deputy commissioner of the BIR Information Systems Group, she said that collection for January this year, nationwide, has reached P59.76 billion as against the P55.23 billion collection January of last year.

“That is P4.6 billion higher than what was collected on the same period last year; and for this year’s goal of P56 billion for the month of January, that is P3 billion excess,” Guillermo said.

She added that last December, they had an excess of their target amounting to P7 billion.

Guillermo said that this shows that taxpayers are becoming more aware and more mindful of their obligations but continuous reminder is required to ensure that there will be a smooth collection throughout the year.

BIR earlier reported that it exceeded its target for 2009 where it collected P9,777,587,733.19 in the region covering Cebu and Bohol. The figure shows 0.07 percent increase from the 2008 collection of P8,710,337,077.55.

BIR Cebu information officer Isabelo Suelto said that they are more than happy to have exceeded their target but BIR still has a lot to do because there are still a lot of delinquent payers or tax evaders.

“Reaching our goal and running after these evaders remain our major challenges,” Suelto said.

Just last year, BIR was able to shut down 15 establishments for violating the National Internal Revenue Code but not limited to failure in paying taxes despite several warnings from BIR and misdeclaring information like falsifying the summary list of sales or purchase.

“But fortunately and we’re happy to say that gradually, taxpayers are becoming more aware of the system of taxation of the government because we constantly give them seminars about tax laws and updates on the system,” Suelto said.

Yesterday, BIR launched its information campaign for this year dubbed as “Making the public know,” with a message reminding the public that April 15, 2010 is the deadline for filing of the income tax return.

Tan appealed once again to the public to pay the right amount of tax, to pay constantly and timely.

“Please help our country. The taxes that we pay will go a long way,” Tan said. — Jessica Ann R. Pareja/MEEV    (FREEMAN NEWS)