BIR Region 1 hikes tax collection to P200 million by ‘closing establishments’

CALASIAO, Pangasinan – The Region 1 (Ilocos) Bureau of Internal Revenue has increased its tax collection in the province by around P200 million through cooperation of taxpayers, tax information campaigns of the bureau through the media and programs like Oplan Kandado where establishments of cheating businessmen were padlocked.

The regional BIR based here said the amount was more than five percent increase of their tax collection for 2009 compared to the collection in previous years.

Regional Director Tomas Rosales said for 2009, they have hiked their collection by more than P200 million, from their previous collection of P4.4-billion to P4.7-billion.

This represents mostly income tax and value-added tax, Rosales said.

About 50 percent of their collection comes from Pangasinan, he said.

He said if not for Typhoon Pepeng that devastated Pangasinan in October and heavily affected businesses, they would have collected more.

He said sometime in September, they already hit their goal for the said period until the destructive typhoon inundated Pangasinan that resulted in about seven percent under goal in their entire 2009 target collection.

“But still, we overshot our 2008 record and I think that would be okay considering what befell our area,” he said.