PALO, Leyte – The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) here in the region has failed to meet its collection covering the first six months of the year.
From January to June, the regional BIR, comprising of six revenue district offices, has only managed to collect P3.94 billion or a shortfall of 12.78 percent.
For the same period, the tax agency set a collection target of P4.52 billion.
“Since we are highly dependent on withholding taxes from government projects, our collection has decreased this year since there were less post-Yolanda recovery activities compared to 2014 and 2015,” said BIR Eastern Visayas assistant regional director Teodoro Galicia, citing the reason for the shortfall of the collection target for the period.
“Although we missed the target, we are happy to generate nearly half of the P8.67 billion goal for the year,” he added.
Of the total collection for the period, P1.60 billion was earned by Tacloban revenue district office (RDO) in northern Leyte and Biliran; P754.74 million by Ormoc RDO in western Leyte; P587.90 million by Catbalogan RDO in Samar; P342.75 million was generated by Catarman RDO in Northern Samar; P339.14 million by Borongan RDO in Eastern Samar and P316.84 million by Maasin RDO in Southern Leyte.
Among the six RDOs, only Catbalogan office exceeded the target by only 0.63 percent while the rest RDOs posted a deficit ranging from nine percent to more than 17 percent.
The BIR in the region is targeting a P8.67 billion tax collection this year even after it failed to reach the 2015 revenue goals due to impacts of supertyphoon “Yolanda” that struck the region in 2013.
The tax bureau said they are still optimistic to meet the target this year with the recovery of businesses and expansion activities of private establishments.
Of the P8.67 billion annual target, P5.68 billion will be from income tax, P2.17 million from value added tax, P10.72 million from excise taxes, P316.74 million from percentage tax, and P483.58 million other taxes. (SARWELL Q.MENIANO)