BIR gets P39-M grant from US trade agency

The United States will extend a grant worth $809,450 (about P38.85 million) to the Philippines to finance the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) ongoing efforts to fully automate its services by 2030.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Department of Finance (DOF) said President Duterte recently approved its request for a special authority so that the DOF and the BIR could negotiate with the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) for the upcoming grant.

The DOF said Undersecretaries Antonette Tionko and Mark Dennis Joven as well as BIR Deputy Commissioner Lanee Cui-David would be the lead negotiators with the US agency.

In particular, the USTDA grant will finance the BIR’s Information and Communications Technology Modernization Strategy and Data Center Technical Assistance Project, the DOF said.

In 2019, the BIR unveiled its 2030 digital transformation roadmap aimed at making all its transactions with clients instantaneous and seamless.

Among the specific online systems that the BIR will develop under its digital transformation roadmap included e-invoicing and e-receipting, a value-added tax refund system, fuel marking and testing, internal revenue stamps integrated system for alcohol, and electronic BIR forms 2306 and 2307.

Separately, the Department of Budget and Management’s Government Procurement Policy Board also on Wednesday launched the Philippine Bidding Documents Builder portal funded by a grant from the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Jeffery Hoebel, director at USAID Philippines’ office of economic development and governance, said that the portal that would facilitate on-time government procurement while promoting transparency and accountability. —Ben O. de Vera