Tuesday, September 09, 2008 BIR exec sees drop in tax collections By Joy Romares-Sevilla
THE revenue district officer of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in Davao City said Monday that the revenue collection from July to December this year is expected to decrease.
In an interview with Sun.Star, Jose Eric Furia, BIR revenue district officer (RDO), said Davao City revenue collection may decrease by P30 million to P50 million per month as the BIR supports the government policy, Republic Act (RA) 9504, that took effect in July this year.
"As far as revenue is concerned, this new policy will definitely affect our collection. BIR estimates that revenues nationwide will go down by P30 billion from July to December this year," he said.
"For Davao City, about P30 million to P50 million decrease in revenue collection per month is expected," Furia told Sun.Star.
Furia said RA 9504 is an act amending some sections of RA 8424, otherwise known as the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997.
"This Act (RA 9504) says that minimum wage earners shall be exempted from the payment of income tax on their taxable income. Minimum wage earners will be granted the exemption, increasing their take home pay," Furia explained.
Furia said this will be favorable to the minimum wage earners as they will not be subjected to the withholding tax.
"For our side, we really need to support it because it's a government policy," Furia said, adding that the policy was crafted because of the present economic crisis brought about by high inflation rates.
"Economic crisis is a global thing. This policy is one of the measures to cushion the impact of the poor economic situation," he disclosed.
Furia said BIR Davao's target revenue collection for 2008 is pegged at P5.7 billion in 2008.
Because of the new policy, he projected that the revenue of Davao City is expected to reach P5 billion by the end of the year.
On the other hand, Furia further said the collection performance from January to June this year was better compared to the same period last year.
He, however, failed to reveal the revenues collected from January to June last year.
"For this year's first semester, our collection was placed at P2.7 billion; our goal is P2.6 billion," Furia said, adding that among four revenue district offices in Davao Region, only Davao City was able to meet and even surpass its goal.
He added that the biggest contributors in revenue in Davao City are firms and corporations in the banana industry.
"Our major contributors are firms in the banana industry. When we hold our annual celebration, we also acknowledge these firms," Furia concluded.
