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Thursday, January 29, 2004
2004 budget deficit to hit P230B: lawmaker
MANILA—House Appropriations Committee chairman Rep. Rolando Andaya (Camarines Sur) yesterday predicted that the budget deficit of the government for 2004 will hit P230 billion, higher than the estimated P197.8 billion it projected.
Andaya said the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) needs to accrue P488.6 billion for 2004.
“That would mean a 15-percent increase, or P65.6 billion more than its 2003 actual collection of P423 billion,” he said.
Andaya pointed out that based on the prevailing growth of the tax collection of the BIR, it does not show that the agency is capable of achieving the projected collections.
“If you look at BIR’s record, its average growth in collection is 4.7 percent over the past five years,” he said.
Andaya said government should be more realistic and provide the BIR with a “good fighting target” at P460 to P470 billion this year, which would shave P18 billion to P28 billion off its P671.2-billion overall revenue target.
“The writing on the wall is clear. There’s no way for our revenue agencies to collect that amount,” he said.
Projections of a higher budget deficit for 2004 were made last year after the House Committee on Ways and Means “tabled” the proposed indexation of tobacco and alcohol taxes.
Committee vice-chairman Rep. Herminio Teves (Negros Oriental) said the bill was deferred since there would be no more time for the Senate to act on it and pass it into law.
“They used the term tabled, which means this could be revived by the majority of the members of the Committee,” the legislator said.
He also blamed congressmen belonging to the tobacco bloc for blocking the passage of the bill. (PNA)
In an interview, Teves said the BIR would need to double its
work to collect more taxes to prevent the ballooning of the budget
deficit.
“The BIR should source to other revenues since they are only collecting 40 percent of what should be collected,” he said.
Teves said BIR could improve its collection on telecommunications and sugar industry.
Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption Rep. Kim Bernardo-Lokin said the deferment of the passage of the bill was ironic.
She said the bill has been certified as urgent by President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo and was even reiterated by the President during her last State of the Nation Address (SONA).
Lokin noted that the Department of Finance has submitted a proposal on the pending measure moving for the implementation of a reclassification of all tobacco and alcohol brands based on the current net retail price.
Lokin said the attempt of the BIR to implement a reclassification of old and new brands was not successful since revenues went down after its implementation.
“The new brands needed to cut down in their production because
of the high tax being imposed on them,” she said. (PNA)
(January 29, 2004 issue)
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