Angara: Scrap common fund to allow performance incentives

Sen. Edgardo Angara called yesterday for the scrapping of the "one-fund concept" of the national government to pave the way for the automatic grant of incentives to revenue and other collection agencies of government that overshoot their yearly collection targets.

Angara expressed confidence that scrapping the one-fund concept would be a major step to energize the revenue collection effort of agencies such as the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs.

He noted that the two agencies had dismal collection efforts in the first seven months of the year, resulting in a budgetary deficit of P133 billion, or more than the P130-billion programmed deficit for the whole year.

Angara explained that under the one-fund concept, all revenue collections and fees go to the national treasury.

"By scrapping the concept, agencies that do well in revenue collection can get their share as incentive," he said.

He said that the incentives can be in the form of financial reward for employees, increased capital outlay for the agency concerned, and increased maintenance and operating expenses of performers.

"Definitely, there should be an incentive scheme for good performers. It is one way of motivating and inspiring them," Angara added..

In a related development, Senate President Franklin Drilon said he would push for a Senate investigation into the "whopping budgetary deficit" to determine the causes of the shortfall.

Recently resigned BIR Commissioner Rene Bañez had blamed the alleged inefficiency and corruption in the BIR for the revenue shortfall. He also claimed that he was forced to resign because "saboteurs" in the bureau were blocking his reform efforts.

"Congress should determine whether the shortfall was due alone to poor tax administration or if there were other contributory factors such as faulty tax policies and tax laws," Drilon said.

He also called for the reexamination of the BIR policy requiring tax payments through banks in the wake of the Landbank tax scam that latest reports indicated could reach P400 million.

"We should consider whether it would be better to return to the old system of the taxes being paid directly to the Bureau of Treasury," Drilon said.