MANILA, Philippines?The devastation form weather disturbances ?Ondoy? and ?Pepeng? shaved some P6 billion in income tax from the national coffers, according to the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

Internal Revenue Commissioner Joel L. Tan-Torres yesterday told reporters that private firms reported ?casualty losses? of about P21 billion, referring to property damaged due to the typhoons.

Even then, Tan-Torres said the lost revenue would not increase the deficit this year as the taxpayers? claims would reflect in next year?s transactions.

?These numbers are preliminary and may be bigger when claims are filed on April 14,? the BIR chief said.

For 2010, the BIR?s goal is to collect P833 billion, which means that losses due to the typhoons would account for about 0.75 percent of the target.

The lost income tax revenue is also bigger than the BIR?s collection shortfall in November, which has one of the highest monthly targets.

Tan-Torres said the agency fell short of the P80-billion monthly goal by P5 billion.

This put the agency?s shortfall in the 11 months to November to P50 billion.

For the period, the BIR was supposed to collect P737 billion but managed only P687 billion.

The BIR?s failure to meet its targets was one of the main causes for the budget deficit to swell as the agency usually accounted for 75 percent of the government?s tax revenue.

As of October, the budget deficit has reached P266.1 billion, breaching the full-year target limit of P250 billion.

In earlier interviews, Tan-Torres has expressed resignation that the BIR would fail to meet its P798-billion target collection for the year.

He said the agency would be able to address missed targets in January when the BIR starts the new year with a clean slate.

Tan-Torres added that the BIR would be more aggressive in its campaigns to make collection more efficient, including the SanTAX Claus project.

He has warned bazaar retailers that they faced fines of up to P10,000 for every instance of not issuing receipts to customers.