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Saturday, March 01, 2003
Multisectoral support for BIR’s tax campaign
By Cherry T. Lim
GOVERNMENT officials and private sector representatives yesterday pledged their support for the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) 2003 tax campaign.
The tax campaign theme, “Buwis Ko, Alay Ko Tungo sa Matatag na Republika,” (I pay my taxes for the establishment of a strong republic), was unveiled at the Social Hall of the BIR-Revenue Region 13, Cebu City office on Archbishop Reyes Ave.
During the ceremony, representatives from government headed by Cebu Gov. Pablo Garcia and Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña; business groups, led by the Cebu Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce (CFCCC), Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) and Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry; medical and pharmaceutical associations; contractors’, architects’, engineers’ and hardware storeowners’ groups; accounting firms; cooperatives and the media affixed their signatures to a billboard containing the theme.
Heads of the Cebu Bankers Club, Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Cebu Province chapter, Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accounts-Cebu, Cebu Federation of Petroleum Dealers and Cebu Shell Dealers Association, as well as representatives from large taxpayers like San Miguel Corp. and Norkis Automotive Resources Corp. were among the others who showed their support by signing on the billboard.
BIR-13 Assistant Regional Director Araceli Francisco said the bureau was revitalizing its tax information and education campaign because
tax information is indispensable in revenue collection.
In his speech, BIR-13 Regional Director Jaime Santiago explained why it is a “patriotic duty to pay our correct taxes—and on time.”
The taxes paid would be used to finance infrastructure projects, maintain peace and order, provide basic health and social services, generate jobs, and provide free elementary and high school education to the country’s children, among others.
Santiago thanked the taxpayers for enabling the BIR-13, which comprises Cebu and Bohol provinces, to rank fifth among the bureau’s 19 revenue regions and the Large Taxpayers Service (LTS) in collection performance for 2002 “in terms of percentage of excess in target.”
He then called on them to help the bureau increase its collection this year by 15 percent.
Commenting on the campaign, CCCI president Jose Ng said: “This is a very laudable effort of the BIR to collect more taxes for our nation. I think they should be fully supported by everybody.”
CFCCC president Filomeno Lim, on the other hand, said: “They don’t even have to ask because we (businessmen) are (already) supporting the government … If we did not cooperate, I don’t think they would be number five (in rank among the regions),” he told Sun.Star.
Despite this, he pledged that the group would encourage its members to pay their taxes so they could “sleep soundly” at night and concentrate on running their businesses.
On concerns by some quarters that more taxes paid would only mean more money lost to corruption in government, Lim said the BIR was only the collecting agency. “The spending agency is different.”
(March 1, 2003 issue)
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