Bureau of Internal Revenue. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
The country’s biggest revenue agency is optimistic to hit its collection goal this year even as a top Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) official, who was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte and tasked to oversee collections, has resigned, the Inquirer learned.
Internal Revenue Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay told reporters Thursday that they were hopeful to collect the adjusted P1.783-trillion tax take target for 2017.
“We’re chasing our target, hopefully with the cooperation of taxpayers. We have three months to go; it’s very tight. Relatively, I think we’re doing fine. The regions are doing very well, they’re really working hard,” Dulay said.
The latest Department of Finance data showed that BIR collections jumped 11 percent year-on-year to P1.302 trillion as of end-September, even as the agency still missed its nine-month goal of P1.351 trillion.
Dulay’s optimism came even as Nestor A. Valeroso, who in late February was appointed by Duterte to the position of special assistant with the rank of deputy commissioner, tendered his irrevocable resignation effective Nov. 1.
Valeroso early this year retired also as a deputy commissioner after over four decades of working in government, at the peak of his career at the helm of the BIR’s operations group as well as the large taxpayers service.
“I am proud to claim that I have served and performed extremely well. I have exerted all possible effort—albeit very difficult at times—to help the bureau improve its tax administration and revenue collection. Through the years, I have strived to introduce innovations and improvements to help in increasing revenue collections and I am extremely gratified that, somehow, I have contributed to the improvement in the lives not only of my family but also of my countrymen,” Valeroso said in his Oct. 10 letter to President Duterte through Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III.
Sought for comment, Dulay said he has yet to see Valeroso’s resignation letter.
Asked if he will ask Valeroso to stay, Dulay replied: “It’s not my call. He’s an appointee of the President.”
A copy of Valeroso’s resignation letter seen by the Inquirer, however, showed that Dulay’s office already received a copy of the letter on Oct. 11, Wednesday. /jpv