Business
FOR YEAR 2012: BIR-Bicol eyes P5.7B revenues
By Danny O. Calleja
FROM its revenue collection of P4.7 billion in Bicol in 2011, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is seeking a billion pesos more as it places its collection target in the region for this year at P5.7 billion.
“Although our P4,714,368,943.79 collection last year fell short from our P4.996-billion target, it posted an improvement of 8.55 percent or more than P374.4 million over our collection in 2010. Thus, we are confident that this year, we would be able to reach the target of P5.7 billion,” BIR Regional Director for Bicol Esmeralda Tabule over the weekend here said.
That air of confidence, Tabule said, is inspired by the fact that last January alone, the regional collection hit the over P.5 billion mark. “We were able to realize a P525,524,777.40 collection in the first month of this year surpassing by 6.01 percent our P495.7 million goal for the month and 23 percent or P99 million over of our collection for the same period last year,” she said.
The January 2012 collections came mostly from remittances made by tax withholding agents in the region and from annual registration payments of regular suppliers of goods and services by the top 5,000 to 20,000 individual and private
corporations including large taxpayers, Tabule explained. The Excise Tax return for sale of gold and other metallic mineral products by smallscale miners to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) was additional contributor, she added.
Another motivating factor for the BIR to aim for higher revenue collection in Bicol this year, Tabule saidis the ascending trend in tax remittances it was able to establish owing to the economic growth the region is achieving particularlygenerated by its booming tourism industry and pouring in of investments in mining, agribusiness, malls and business outsourcing, among others. She cited a report of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) saying Bicol’s regional economy grew by 8.2 percent in 2009, twice its pace in 2008 and much faster than the 1.1 percent growth at the national level.
This growth has been sustained in 2010 and even scaled up in 2011 with the industry sector remaining as Bicol’s strongest performer for an 18.3 percent average expansion that catapulted the region to the top among all the other regions of the country in terms of growth, the NSCB data show.
The Regional Development Council (RDC) headed by Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, a topnotch economist, placed Bicol’s economic growth in 2011 at 12.4 due to the favorable showings of the region’s key economic factors—improved factors – improved peace and order situation, enlivened tourism industry, friendly business climate and agricultural productivity.
“We are taking advantage of these magnificent economic performances of the region in our tax collection target and one of our major campaigns is to instill to the buying public the importance of asking for a receipt for every purchase they make to ensure that the corresponding tax is paid,” Tabule said.
As a complementary project to the “Ask for a Receipt Program,” she said the BIR regional office is launching a “Receipt Issuance Campaign” that would remind all business establishments the importance of issuing receipt in every sale transaction they make.
Under this campaign, businesses are required to post in conspicuous places in their establishments a new sticker with the message “Sa Kada Pagbakal Mo, Obligacion Ko an Magresibo (For every purchase you make, it is my obligation to issue a receipt).”
BIR Bicol had also introduced “Robi Resibo” the anime superhero they created whose mission is to go around business establishments as a way to further strengthen their advocacy campaign on the importance for the customers to demand a receipt for every transaction and for the business establishment to automatically issue a receipt. Tabule also said that they will also strengthen their campaign by vigorously implementing Oplan Kandado and monitoring of professionals lessors and lessees, withholding agents, top 20,000 corporations and top 5,000 individual taxpayers. PNA
