Acting P'gasinan BIR Chief Sees P2.3-B Goal Next Year

OPTIMISTIC TO HIT P1.856-B GOAL THIS YEAR

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

URDANETA CITY – The acting Revenue District Office No. 6 Chief of The Bureau of Internal Revenue in eastern Pangasinan will have a collection goal of P2.3 billion this coming year as she is optimistic to attain the almost P2 billion tax target this year.

Assistant RDO Chief Lolita Salayog said that based on the customary 20% to 25% addition to the present tax goal of P1.856 Billion, the next year’s target will probably be P2.3 billion.

“It is based on the Gross Domestic Product of the area of 20% to 25%,” she cited after she computed the projected goal next year.

The target is given first quarter of the year by the BIR commissioner in Quezon City to all revenue district offices all over the country.

Despite the P98 million deficit as December 31 this year approaches, Salayog is positive to eclipse the almost P2 billion goal for 2019.

TAX HONCHOS  Top executives of the Bureau of Internal Revenue in Northern Luzon pose for posterity with the tax agency’s commissioner Caesar Dulay (second from left) in a social function. From left Ilocos Sur Revenue District Office No. 2 Chief Trina Villamil, Dulay, Tarlac RDO No. 17-B Ma. Bernadette Mangaoang, La Union RDO No. 3 Chief Chum C. dela Torre, and Urdaneta City Assistant RDO No. 6 Chief Lolita Salayog.

“As of December 16, 2019 we have a shortfall of 5.28% or P98 billion to chalk – up. I am positive (to hit it) because mahirap magsalita ng negative,” she told this writer with a chuckle.

In the early months of this year Salayog and then RDO-6 Chief Cecilia Campos were frantic to collect the target because the 15 towns and one city RDO had collected a lot of Capital Gain and Documentary Taxes on the residents of the district who sold their lands through expropriations for the right of way of the Tarlac-Pangasinan- La Union Expressway (TPLEX) by the Private Infra Development Corporation.

The government based its increase on the tax goal on the following year by jacking up with 25% the present year collection by the RDO here.

Head of the Taxpayer Assistance Unit Lee Caday, who is based at the BIR regional office in Calasiao, Pangasinan, explained to this newspaper that the huge collection collected by then RDO-6 chiefs Beverly S. Milo and Maribel Utit became a bane to the current RDO-6 chief Campos and Assistant RDO-6 chief  Salayog.

“During the time of RDO-6 chiefs Milo and Utit, the TPLEX was constructed in the district and the operator bought lands of the farmers there through expropriation. A lot of taxes went to the RDO there where BIR main office in Quezon City based its tax goal by exceeding it for the present officials to collect,” Caday stressed.

He said it was a tall order for the brass here that oversees a city and 15 towns in eastern Pangasinan.

Caday explained that these taxes collected during the stints of Milo and Utit were One-Time Transaction (ONETT).

“Transaciton ng lupa pag nagbentahan and transact sa BIR tapos na iyan. Pag binayaran Capital Gain Tax, pag binayaran  ang document stamp. That’s the only time that we pay unless na paulit-ulit which is seldom like sa mga subdivisions,” he cited.

He said that unlike in businesses where income tax is regularly collected, sale on land is a onetime affair concerning taxation.

Salayog said that her office is run by 24 examiners, a group supervisor, and chief collection agent.

She became the acting RDO-Chief here after Campos retired recently.