BIR-Pangasinan upbeats on good collection with credit upgrades

CALASIAO – With the optimism felt by the Central Bank Governor that the Philippines gets a BBB upgrade for the Standard & Poor, the chief of the Bureau of Internal Revenue Central Pangasinan is upbeat that collection will be bullish for her coffer this year. “Yes, we will be much better financially and economically. Mas madami ang gustong mag-invest dito,” explained by Revenue District Office-4 chief Christine Cardona. She stressed that with the looming triple B upgrade from the New York based credit watch S&P, more foreign investors will invest in the country thus it will increase employment. “Baba ang unemployment natin. Iyong buying capacity ng mga ta-o lalaki. An S&P review team has been in the country recently as part of its regular assessment on the country’s fiscal and monetary environments and overall economic fundamentals. The team met with BIR Commissioner Kim Henares regarding gains made in tax administration and revenue enhancement. Henares said that during their meeting, the S&P team called for the passage of the two revenue measures by June 30. The timely passage of the two measures would boost the country’s chance of securing a credit rating upgrade. Cardona said she is always optimistic that she can attain her goal of almost P2 billion this year. RDO-4 is the only two revenue district office in Region 1 that has attained its goal of P1, 776,721,000.00 last year by exceeding it in her collection of P1, 810,923,237.5. The other one is RDO 2 that is based in Vigan, Ilocos sur. Cardona added that that Mrs. Yolly Ferrer, her predecessor, collected P1, 529,038,726.83 in 2010. Assistant Revenue District Office-4 chief Charmaine dela Torre said that the good performance of RDO-4 was the result of demand letters sent by her and RDO-4 Chief Cardona to tax payers. “We kept on sending letters reminding them with their obligation. We kept sending those letters from the BIR. We mean business. We are after those who are not paying correctly their taxes,” Dela Torre stressed. In the light of lower collections that beset the other district offices in Region -1 because of lower Tax Remittance Advisory (TRA) collection, dela Torre explained that despite the absence of projects from the national government through the TRA her office under the able stewardship of Cardona did not flinch to hit its tax goal Cardona said she did not focus on the Transfer Receipt Advisory but aggressively collects revenue from the typical taxpayers. “But we should focus on is collection kung walang construction, walang TRA”. TRA is when private subcontractors’ income tax and Value Added Tax are withheld by the government that contracted their service for a certain project Because of the absence of massive government spending the other RDO’s goal in Region 1 was undermined last year (Mortz C.Ortigoza). BIR-Western Pangasinan exceeds its goal again ALAMINOS CITY – The chief of the Bureau of Internal Revenue here who supervises almost all of the first and second congressional districts of Pangasinan bares how his office exceeded again the February 2012 revenue collection goal. Mr. Quirino Ramos said that based on his February 2012 collection he collected P51, 065,260.161 versus the goal given by the national tax office. “The goal given to me in February was P49, 209.000,” he stressed. He disclosed that if his collection of P51, 065,260.161 is compared to February last year “the last year collection was only P42, 570,885.029”. An excess of P8,494,375.132. Ramos said that in January 2012 his office was the only one among the other five revenue district offices (RDOs) spread all over Region-1 that surpassed its mandated goal. “Lahat sila nag negative (all of them were negative),” he quipped on the vernacular (Mortz C. Ortigoza).