7-POINT PROGRAM
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) 13 will go full blast in implementing its 7-point program, which is expected to boost its revenue collection for the rest of the year.
Newly-installed BIR 13 Regional Director Aynie Mandajoyan-Dizon said the program would be aimed at addressing the collection deficit incurred in the first half of 2017 against the agency’s targets for the period covered.
“I am hopeful for the second semester. I have faith and I am confident,” Dizon told reporters on Monday.
Dizon, who took over BIR 13 last July 3, replaced Alfredo Misajon, who now sits as the BIR Assistant Commissioner for Collection Service.
Latest BIR 13 data showed that the region collected P13.8 billion from January to June this year, which is 6.41 percent short of the P14.7-billion target for the first six months of 2017.
The collection, however, exceeded the year-on-year collection by 13.51 percent, with the agency only collecting P12.1 billion during the first semester of 2016.
The first priority in the BIR 13’s 7-point agenda is a massive tax compliance verification drive, which involves door-to-door spot checking of establishments to determine which are not yet registered taxpayers.
Other items in the program include intensified data matching, benchmarking per industry, Point-of-Sale machine post-evaluation, inventory stocktaking, enforcement activities, and surveillance.
Dizon said all BIR regional offices are adopting a 7-point program, but are doing it differently, based on the collection potential within their respective jurisdictions.
“We really mean business. We want to give more time to implement these points,” she said, adding that they started to roll out the program earlier this July, although enforcement and surveillance have long been practiced by the agency.
She said that she will be “friendly” with her approach to maintain the sustainability of the agency’s tax collection.
Dizon said that they failed to meet their goals for the first half of this year due to 22 taxpayers having been transferred to the Large Taxpayers
Division, making them lose some opportunities for improved collection.
Nonetheless, Dizon said they are doing very well this year compared to 2016.
The Cebu City-based BIR 13 collects tax through five district offices in Cebu City north, Cebu City south, Mandaue City, Talisay City, and Bohol.