Aquino: We doubled revenues collected during Arroyo’s time

President Benigno Aquino III fetes the tax collection and revenues during his five-year administration. SCREENGRAB FROM RTVM.

“Limang taon lang ang kinailangan…halos madoble (ang kinita) ng ating sinundan,” President Benigno Aquino III said during his final State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday.

(We only needed five years…and we doubled the revenues collected by our predecessor.)

Aquino was referring to the collections of the Bureau of Internal Revenues (BIR) and that of the Government Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCC).

READ: GOCCs hand turn-over P36.86 billion in dividends to Aquino, national treasury

He said it was the first time that the BIR collection reached one trillion pesos. In 2014, BIR collection was P1.3 trillion, up by 9.64 percent from P1.2 trillion the year before.

He lauded the work of Commissioner Kim Henares who is known for regularly filing cases against alleged tax evaders.

“Si Kim Henares, walang tax evader na sinasanto (Kim Henares has been relentless against tax evaders),” Aquino said.

This was similar to the case of GOCCs, which were able to raise dividends turned over to the national government.

A total of P131.28 billion have been remitted by GOCCs under Aquino’s administration (2010-2015) while only P84.18 billion in remittances were collected from 2001 to 2009 under former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. IDL