BIR top brass in Ilocos Region optimistic on collection

Revenue District-4 Chief Christine Cardona. Cardona oversees 13 towns and two cities in Central Pangasinan - a district much bigger than the entire province of nearby Tarlac.

BIR Region-1 Regional Director Atty. Arnel Guballa

CALASIAO – The chief of the Bureau of Internal Revenue-4 who supervises the humungous Central Pangasinan area said that she collected P591, 337,689.6 from January to April 2011,  a higher revenue by 22% for the collection of P484, 570.443.11 in the same period last year.

Ms. Christine Cardona said that the BIR’s Central Office has given her a tax goal of P574, 091.020 for January to April 2011.

“Due to the aggressive stance of my personnel, we were able to collect P591, 337,689.6,” she stressed.

RD-4 has a tax goal of P 1.7 billion at the end of this year.

Meanwhile, BIR Regional Director Arnel Guballa has said that as of April 2011 his office that supervises the provinces of two Ilocos, La Union, and the Pangasinan collected P695 million versus the P633 million collection’s last year.

He said the goal given to him for the said month was P755 million but he was short by P59 million.

He declared the goal given to him by the BIR’s central office is quite higher.

“I would say, sabi ko nga we collected fairly because our collection for this year is purely coming from tax payers. Unlike last year na we have many government projects kasi election year, and one, yes, iyong projects ng Ondoy (a super typhoon) as government projects. Ngayong 2011 wala na iyong factors na iyon. So I can say na justified din iyon (the April collection). It was really a good performance and I am very proud of my districts na notwithstanding na wala kaming government projects at present na wala na ngayon we were able to increase our collection by P15 % over last year,” he explained

The 15% he mentioned was the collection of April this year as against the sum in the same month last year.

He said the deficit of the tax target last April could have been easily attained if the income tax worth  more than P130 million for that period from Stradcom was not transferred by the central office to the large tax division in Manila this year from his region.

Stradcom is an information technology entity at the Land Transportation headed by a Pangasinense Nestor Quimbao -- whose main office is in the town of Bayambang, Pangasinan.

Atty. Guballa said, however, the cumulative collection from January to March has increased by 20% compared to the same amount period last year.

Guballa is optimistic that the goal of P6.5 billion given to him is achievable at the end of this year (Mortz C. Ortigoza).