SOME P3.062 billion in taxes have been collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR)-Revenue Region 16 from January to July this year.
Esmeralda Tabule, BIR Revenue Region 16 director, said this is actually 27.34 percent higher compared to the P2.404 billion collected during the same period last year.
Tabule said the BIR's collection for the first seven months of the year is 109.96 percent higher compared to their goal for the period, which is P2.78 billion.
"I am confident that through the joint efforts of the BIR and the taxpayers, we can heed the call of President Benigno Aquino to help the nation recover and sustain its productivity and prosperity which he promised to attain during his inaugural speech," Tabule said.
With this, she appealed to the taxpayers to keep up, if not increase, the level of tax compliance in order to assist the BIR in achieving its annual tax collection goal of P5.38 billion, which has been subsequently raised to P5.51 billion by Aquino.
Meanwhile, the highest amount of tax collection was done by Revenue District Office (RDO) 98 in Cagayan de Oro City with P1.685 billion, higher by 32 percent over its collection of P1.274 billion in the same period last year.
Except for Ozamiz City, all other RDOs of the BIR also noted increases in their collection during the period. The RDO 97 in Gingoog City collected P114.69 million or 19.25 percent more than last year's P96.25 million, while RDO 99 in Malaybalay City collected P404.91 million, up by 35.84 percent from last year's P298.09 million.
The RDO 100 in Iligan City also collected P306.27 million or 39.03 percent more than last year's P220.29 million, while RDO 102 in Marawi City collected P142.56 million, which is 50.24 percent more than the P94.89 million collected in the same period last year.
During the period, RDO 101 in Ozamiz City only collected P407.98 million, which is 2.87 percent less than its P420.04 million collection last year. (PIA)