BIR collections rose 9.55% to P1.54T in 2016

The Bureau of Internal Revenue’s tax take from its operations jumped by almost a tenth last year, making the country’s biggest tax-collection agency more optimistic that it would hit its even higher goal this year, Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay said on Monday.

Dulay told the Inquirer that tentative data as of last week showed that collections from BIR operations for the entire 2016 grew 9.55 percent year-on-year to P1.54 trillion. The BIR chief did not disclose collections from non-BIR operations.

Collections of the Large Taxpayers Service (LTS) increased by 8.46 percent year-on-year to P962.16 billion while the take of regional offices rose 11.42 percent year-on-year to P576.17 billion, Dulay said.

The BIR missed its adjusted P1.62-trillion goal for 2016, although the collections growth outpaced the 8-percent total increase to P1.44 trillion in 2015. “We’re satisfied with our performance,” Dulay said, who in July last year was appointed by President Duterte to replace Kim S. Jacinto-Henares.

Upon assuming office, the Duterte administration’s economic managers slashed the government’s 2016 revenue program, blaming supposedly below-target performance in the collection of tax and non-tax revenues during the first half or the final six months of the Aquino administration.

Under the previous administration, the BIR’s 2016 target was P2.026 trillion, the first time that collections were aimed at breaching the P2-trillion mark.

In December alone, the BIR collected P116.34 billion from its operations, up 4.02 percent from P111.85 billion in the same month in 2015, Dulay said.

While collections of the LTS and the regional offices grew 4 percent and 15 percent, respectively, last December, the total take during the month fell below the P135.03-billion goal.

But Dulay said that unlike previous years when the tax take during the months of November and December would level off, most BIR operations personnel were surprised that they managed to increase their collections.

In November, the BIR collected a total of P157.3 billion, up 15 percent year-on-year.

Even as the target tax take for 2017 would increase to P1.83 trillion, Dulay said they were confident that this year’s goal would be achieved through a double-digit increase in collections. The BIR’s 2017 target was equivalent to almost four-fifths of the government’s total tax revenue program of P2.31 trillion.

Dulay disclosed that one way they would jack up collections this year was by reviewing zonal valuation, some of which had not been adjusted in at least two decades.

Also, the BIR would sustain initiatives aimed at making compliance easier for taxpayers, Dulay added. “We will continue to improve in the ease of doing business by reviewing our revenue issuances.” —BEN O. DE VERA