TACLOBAN CITY—A slowdown in government infrastructure spending in the region is making it impossible for Eastern Visayas’ revenue collectors to meet their targets, a top Bureau of Internal Revenue official in the region said.
Diosdado Mendoza, BIR Eastern Visayas director, on Tuesday said it would require a miracle for the regional revenue office to meet its collection target of P4.3 billion this year. The regional BIR, he said, had collected only P3.1 billion so far.
In 2010, Mendoza said, the regional BIR collected P3.4 billion from January to October.
Bulk of the region’s collection came from value added tax (VAT) on government infrastructure projects which generated P799.8 million in taxes this year and which was lower than the P1.16 billion in taxes collected on infrastructure projects last year.
BIR charges 12 percent VAT on contractors of government infrastructure projects.
Also this year, the Eastern Visayas BIR collected P1.9 billion in income taxes, P141 million in taxes on sales of firms not registered for VAT, P10.6 million in excise taxes and P248.6 million in other taxes, according to Mendoza.
Of the six revenue offices of the regional BIR, Tacloban City had the highest collection at P1.5 billion followed by Ormoc, P551 million; Catbalogan, P414 million; Maasin, P264 million; Catarman, P234 million and Borongan, P193 million.
Mendoza said the regional BIR would find other ways to increase tax collection and reduce its shortfall.
He said all six field offices of the regional BIR were also directed to continue tax mapping operations to cover all possible sources of taxes and increase collection.
In Cebu City, revenue officials said they may have to lower their collection targets in anticipation of a shortfall.
Ronnie C. Silvestre, Cebu customs collector, said the collection target was P9.3 billion and he expects it to be lowered after the national target was reduced by P42 billion from P320 billion to P278 billion.
“Right now, we are close to a P1-billion shortfall,” said Silvestre. “If the P9.3-billion target will be reduced, then we can meet our target,” he said.
The district’s collection target from January to October was set at P7.5 billion but actual collections reached only P6.4 billion, or a shortfall of at least P1.2 billion.
Silvestre said the customs district office also failed to meet its collection target of P7.6 billion in 2010. He said the district was able to collect only about P7 billion in 2010, or a shortfall of P600 million.
Part of the reason for the shortfall, he said, was the decline in the volume of imports which could be attributed to a decline in manufacturing output.
From January to October, the volume of imported goods that entered this city’s port was only 1.1 billion kilograms, which is lower than the 1.9 billion kg of imports in 2010.
Out of 17 customs districts in the country, only five have surpassed collection targets and these are small ports, according to Silvestre.
Earlier this year, Silvestre had requested for a lower collection target because failure to meet the current target may lead to layoffs of customs employees. Joey Gabieta and Irene R. Sino Cruz, Inquirer Visayas