Revenue District Office No. 69 in Virac continued its fine performance in the annual tax collection campaign for 2020, placing 2nd among the seven RDOs in Bicol in attaining the revenue target and surpassing the previous year’s take.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue’s Virac office, headed by Revenue District Officer Daisy T. Baroma, collected a total of P501,204,627.95 in 2020, higher by 6.06 percent than the P472 million it garnered the previous year.
This is just behind Sorsogon’s 9.26% over-goal achievement in the same area, as it collected a total of P861.5 million last year.
Virac and Sorsogon were the only RDOs to exceed their 2019 tax collection while the other five finished below their previous year’s performances: Iriga City, P557.8 million (-0.85%); Naga City, P2.6 billion (-0.98%); Legazpi City, P2.96 billion (-4.06%); Talisay, Camarines Norte, P798 million (-4.46%); and, Masbate City, P649 million (-7.85%).
Based on the report of BIR regional office, all seven Bicol RDOs exceeded their assigned goals, again headed by Sorsogon (+42.11%) and Virac (+37.76%), followed by Iriga City (+29.91%), Naga City (+28.59%), Legazpi City (+24.68%); Talisay (+24.10%), and Masbate City (+19.70%).
They were originally assigned higher targets but the BIR central office subsequently reduced the goals after the novel coronavirus pandemic seriously affected the country’s economy as a result of the nationwide community quarantine.
Virac RDO was given a goal of P547 million for 2020, which was nearly 16% higher than the actual collection of P472 million in 2019 during which is just barely managed to post an increase over goal of 1.23%.
However, this was pared down to just P363 million pursuant to Revenue Memorandum Order No. 45-2020 issued on Dec. 7, 2020.
The 2020 collection of P501 million is broken down as follows: Income Taxes, P326.9 million (65% of the total); Value-Added Taxes, P128.9 million (25.7%); Percentage Taxes, P19.4 million (3.9%); Excise Taxes, P857,623.91 (0.17%); and, Other Taxes, P25.04 million (4.99%).
Of the five tax types, Excise Taxes and Other Taxes suffered shortfalls of 22.33% and 19.03%, respectively, the report stated.
In an interview, RDO Baroma said that income taxes, Value-Added Taxes and Percentage Taxes increased in 2020 due to government payments of withholding taxes on contracts and expanded VAT payments.
However, excise taxes on quarry activities decreased due to the slowdown in construction activities during the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) while other taxes decreased due to taxpayers availing of the amnesty.
She disclosed that her office has not been assigned a goal for 2021 as the national government is most likely estimating how much it needs to provide for the additional budget for the national vaccination program.
A decrease in the tax collection this April 2021 is being foreseen due to the economic slowdown and the resulting closures of numerous small businesses.