BIR P2.3B shy of H1 collection target

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) missed its 2011 first half collection goal by P2.3 billion, according to Commissioner Kim Henares, who assured that her agency is still gunning for its full-year target of P940 billion. Henares said the first semester revenue haul of P458 billion is only half a percent shy of the P460.3 billion target for January to June this year. She also said the H1 collections were P54 billion higher than the intake in the same months last year. The BIR chief said collections were slightly lower than target because there were fewer taxable transactions. The BIR said it may have had fewer transactions to tax because of less frequent sales, income-generation activities, trade of government securities and earnings remitted by of government agencies. Seventy percent of the national government’s revenues come from BIR operations. In 2012, the BIR collection goal is P1.066 trillion, the first trillion-peso target the agency will have in its 106-year history. — ELR/VS, GMA News