Revenue Agencies fails to hit collection targets

The first seven months of Bureau of Customs (BOC) and Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) seem gloomy as they failed to hit their tax collection goals, as stated in a report from Department of Finance (DOF).

In an effort toFinance Assistant Secretary Mark Dennis Joven said that the bureaus are coming up with solutions to reinforce voluntary compliance among taxpayers.

“First, we force them to go to the BIR or BOC. As discussed by Secretary (Carlos Dominguez), after the last big fish we want to get other big fishes, so hopefully by doing something everyone will be forced to comply,” he said.

Their second strategy is to make it easier for people to pay their taxes.

The BIR missed its collection target by nearly five percent with an income of only P987.79 billion against the target of P1.04 trillion for the seven-month period. For July alone, the collection of the BIR amounted to P134.18 billion, up of more than 14 percent from  P117.61 billion in same month last year but still fell short of the  P134.72 billion target for the period.

While the BOC failed to meet its P257.14 billion target for the seven-month period by 3.95 percent. For July alone, its collection increased by a double-digit rate of  12.35 percent to P34.82 billion from P30.99 billion a year ago. However, the amount was still short by 11.15 percent against the target of  P39.18 billion.

(DAILY NEWS ROUND UP FOR 08 / 15/ 17)