Wednesday, March 07, 2007 DOF eyes 15.6% hike in tax collection next year
THE country aims to hit 15.6 percent improvement in its tax collection campaign in 2008 and to achieve 17 percent of the growth domestic product by 2010.
Finance Secretary Gary B. Teves, discussing on the fiscal sector during the Philippine Economic Briefing Domestic Roadshow in Davao City on Friday at The Marco Polo Hotel, said such goals will be reinforce by intensifying collection efficiency measures.
He explained the effort being done by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Costumes Action Plans to enhance collection efficiency and the full implementation of the Lateral Attrition Law.
"Part of our move is to reinforce governance measures by moving from filing of cases to prosecution," he said.
This move is incorporated in the different fiscal programs such as the Run After Tax Evaders (Rate), Run After The Smugglers (Rats), and Revenue Integrity Protection Service (Rips) through lifestyle checks of government workers.
Teves also reported that the deficit in 2006 at P62.2 billion is the lowest in eight years and they intend to cut the national government debt to lower than 50 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) by end 2010.
Earlier, World Bank country director Joachim Amsberg cited the country's fiscal gains but hinted to government to translate the country's financial gains to improve the people lives.
He said the country must improve further the effectiveness of tax collections of the BIR. It must also adopt efficiency of expenditures, make it transparent and more efforts in reducing corruption.
Teves said that they are committed to continuously carry out Fiscal Reforms admitting that it is not easy task.
Budget Secretary Rolando A. Andaya, who discussed expenditure accounts, said that budgeting has shifted from input based to output based expenditure approach.
He explained that the money given to the department is based on how much they would need based on the results that they could deliver. And budgeting is on a three-year cycle instead of the previous one-year cycle.
The allocation will be by sector and these are on economic services, 50 percent, social services, 21.6 percent, defense, 21.3 percent, general public services, 32.8 percent, IP/Net lending 5.5 percent.
He cited, in particular, that the P10-billion allocation will be for rehabilitation of calamity affected areas.
Additional 5,400 additional classrooms on top of the 12,226 new classrooms already programmed, creation of more teaching positions particularly in the fields of math and science, and P2 billion food supplement for school children.
