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Thursday, January 01, 2004
BIR tax collection up in 11 months of 2003
By Cherry T. Lim
THE Bureau of Internal Revenue 13, Cebu City reported a 7.08 percent increase in its tax collection for the first 11 months of 2003 to P4.74 billion.
But for the month of November alone, there was a 6.56 percent dip in the collection figure to P499.44 million.
Crescencia Zafico, officer-in-charge assistant chief of the special investigation division, explained that the decline may have been caused by the fact that the bureau collected a big amount in November 2002 because this was the month that the Voluntary Assessment and Abatement Program (VAAP) began.
The VAAP, which ended on Oct. 31, 2003, offered an abatement or cancellation of penalties that would otherwise have been imposed on taxpayers who had underdeclared their sales from the second quarter of 2002 and prior quarters.
BIR 13 comprises five revenue districts covering Cebu and Bohol provinces.
Big firms
Over at the Large Taxpayers District Office (LTDO)-Cebu, where 188 of the largest taxpayers in Cebu Province pay their taxes, there was a 12.22 percent increase in tax collection to P4.7 billion in the first 11 months of 2003 from the same period a year ago.
Jonathan Capanas, officer-in-charge of the LTDO-Cebu, said the increase came amid the expansion of the business of some companies, leading to a higher taxable income, as well as their improved tax compliance following close monitoring by the bureau through its Taxpayers Account Management Program.
“Taxpayers are assigned a revenue officer to remind them to pay their taxes,” Capanas told Sun.Star. “This is now being done to the non-large taxpayers (as well).”
Computerized
To further intensify tax collection, the bureau rolled out last month the computerization of the tax collection for non-large taxpayers, he revealed.
Of the 115 BIR district offices in the Philippines, 44 are now computerized.
“That is where they will roll out the electronic filing and payment system for the top 1,000 non-large taxpayers for every district,” Capanas said.
So far, though, the revenue region’s collections are already on track, if not exceeding expectations, to meet the goals for the year.
For the whole Philippines, the BIR’s tax collection target for 2003 is P424 billion. This represents a 7.6 percent increase from the 2002 actual tax collection of P394 billion.
According to a report, the BIR has collected about P387 billion in the first 11 months of 2003.
Capanas was optimistic about tax collections for 2004, saying that with spending expected to increase in the run-up to the May presidential elections, there would be “more sales, more taxes.”
(January 1, 2004 issue)
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