THE Department of Finance (DoF) said its younger hires are facilitating the revenue-collection agencies’ digital transformation initiatives, particularly at the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
The BIR considers its collection performance in 2021 to be aided by new workers who easily adapted to the bureau’s digitalization transformation (DX) efforts, the DoF said in a statement on Wednesday.
“We can attribute our improved performance to our DX programs as well as to our increasing number of young workers who are quicker and more adept at learning digital skills,” BIR Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay was quoted as saying.
Mr. Dulay said that the BIR expanded from 9,626 personnel in 2016, to 13,818 in 2021. Of this total, 6,540 were hired between 2016 and 2021.
Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said that the BIR’s DX efforts have ”really helped continue the tax collection effort, especially during the pandemic.”
Due to the BIR’s increased use of digital payment methods, such as the Electronic Filing and Payment System (eFPS), electronically collected taxes in 2021 accounted for 84% or P1.75 trillion of the total haul.
Mr. Dulay also reported that in 2021, the agency tallied 4.63 million registered business taxpayers, up 5.4% from a year earlier.
Under the BIR’s DX road map, the agency implemented an online system for Tax Clearance for Bidding Purposes and Tax Compliance Verification Certificate (e-TCBP-TCVC), the e-Personal Equity and Retirement Account System, and the e-Appointment system, which took in around 90,000 bookings between May and December last year.
Mr. Dulay said that 76 BIR Offices under its Large Taxpayers Service and Revenue District Offices use e-Appointments for frontline services, while 14 offices in the Assessment section use it for virtual meetings.
Other digitalization efforts include the launch of the Internal Revenue Integrated System (IRIS), which is used to process taxpayer information, and the Enhanced Internal Revenue Stamps Integrated System (STAMPS), which manages processes relating to the excise tax on tobacco products.
The BIR hopes to collect P2.4 trillion this year. For April, the BIR’s collection target is P256.89 billion. — Tobias Jared Tomas
