THE BUREAU of Internal Revenue (BIR) missed its revenue goal last month despite an annual improvement in collections.
The bureau netted P66.55 billion in September, just below its P67.04-billion goal that month, the bureau said in a statement on Monday. Last month’s revenues were nearly a tenth higher, though, than the P60.96 billion collected the year before.
In a press conference, Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares attributed the shortfall to a dip in borrowing by the government as the fiscal deficit was kept below ceiling this year. “We would have exceeded our collection goal by roughly P1 billion if the Bureau of Treasury borrowed as programmed. But we have no control over that,” she said.
At the same time, she credited BIR’s improved efficiency for enabling it to exceed its P62.917-billion cash collection target in September by about P522 million.
BIR collected P686.26 billion in the first nine months, 13% more than the P607.34 billion netted the previous year, but still short of a P694.15-billion goal.
“Our shortfall is slight… but it is a shortfall nonetheless,” Ms. Jacinto-Henares said in a statement. “We will have to work harder in the last three months of the year in order to meet our target.”
BIR is the government’s main revenue agency, accounting for about 70% of state revenue collections. It is tasked to collect P940 billion this year, although the outlook was cut to P935.5 billion due to the economic slowdown.
The tax bureau must collect P253.74 billion in the fourth quarter to reach its full-year goal, or P249.24 billion to meet at least the outlook.
Earlier this month, the Bureau of Customs (BoC) — the government’s second main revenue-collector — admitted it failed to meet its target in September, collecting P20.2 billion against a P30.17-billion target. That took the nine-month haul to P192.174 billion, far short of a P229.624-billion goal assigned for that period.
The BoC is tasked to collect P320 billion this year, but the government has forecast that the bureau’s collections would total just P276.4 billion.
==============================================================================
By: D. C. J. Jiao
Source: Business World, Oct. 17, 2011
To view the original article, click here.
Comment here