BAGUIO CITY – Commissioner Cesar R. Dulay of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) called on Cordillerans to pay their taxes to the government to help generate the necessary resources for the implementation of priority development projects and improve the delivery of basic service to the people, especially those in the countryside.
Commissioner Dulay, who attended the launching of the BIR’s annual tax campaign in the city, said urged Cordillerans to be the first ones to pay their taxes in support of his being the government’s lead tax collector of the Duterte administration, saying that there should be a significant increase in the number of responsible taxpayers from the region.
Based on the data presented by the BIR-CAR, the region has a total of 488,000 individual tax payers and more than 13,000 corporate taxpayers as of last year.
However, BIR-CAR officials revealed there are only 80,218 combined individual and corporate taxpayers who were able to pay their taxes in the different parts of the region last year which is around 16 percent of the total registered taxpayers.
“Our job in the BIR is simply to collect taxes to support the implementation of major development projects and sustain the improvement in the delivery of services to our people. I appeal to our fellow Cordillerans that they should voluntarily pay their taxes to support the government initiatives in the different parts of the country,” Commissioner Dulay stressed.
The BIR Commissioner underscored the bureau is inclined to strengthen its law enforcement against erring taxpayers in the different parts of the country to make sure that there will also be an increase in the compliance of taxpayers in settling their taxes as these remain the lifeblood of the government in sustaining its operations.
According to him, it is the obligation of a responsible Filipino citizen to pay the right taxes to the government and the BIR is mandated to collect such taxes that could be used in improving the living condition of the people in the countryside through the various development projects and improved services to the people.
Commissioner Dulay revealed 97 percent of the taxes collected by BIR are through voluntary payments of individual and corporate taxpayers while only 3 percent comes from the result of the bureau’s aggressive law enforcement to go after tax evaders and erring taxpayers.
He claimed 80 percent of the country’s annual budget comes from the collections of the bureau that is why efforts are being done to further improve their tax collection target annually so more funds could be plowed back to the people in terms of development projects and better services for the Filipinos.
Dulay claimed Filipinos should not wait for inspectors from the bureau to conduct audit on their books to avoid being imposed stiffer penalties and surcharges for their failure to settle their taxes with the government.
Commissioner Dulay remains optimistic that the bureau will sustain the improvement in its tax collections in the coming years to help the government in the implementation of its desired development projects during the term of President Rodrigo R. Duterte when he steps down from office by the end of Junde 2022.
By Dexter A. See
