Ducky Paredes

“With the numbers that Bunag has posted in prior years, he is clearly the best achiever that the Arroyo government has ever had at the BIR.”

by Ducky Paredes

Now that the focus is on the Bureau of Internal Revenue, let us look at the performance of the BIR over a 20-year period, after the return to normalcy with the People Power revolution in 1986.
In 1987, during the first normal year of the presidency of Cory Aquino, the BIR collected P58,583,457,352.66 in taxes. Forget about performance against targets. As anyone who has ever worked in marketing or sales knows, targets are often over-stated. This is a normal consequence of how targets are set. Target-setters look at past performance and predict that the coming year will be better; thus, they set a higher target than what the sales force did this year. If it turns out that the current year is not as good a year as last year, the sales force is harangued and bullied to achieve what have become impossible targets. The same thing foes for BIR and any other targets.
Let’s get back to reality and look only at actual performance. Here is the rest of Cory’s term:
1988, P63,390,681,439.32, an increase of 8.2%;
1989, P82,188,931,461.46 (29.65%);
1990, P104,038,974,781.35 (26.50%);
and 1991, P116,255,778,539.31 (11.74%)
Fidel Ramos took over on June 30, 1992. In Ramos’ first year, the collection was P133,904,122,945.77 or an increase of 15.18%;
1993, P145, 926,753,380.26 (8.98%);
1994, P183,443,197,892.66 (28.45%);
1995, P211,462,400,243.62 (12.81%);
1996, P260,774,152,738.89 (23.32%);
and for 1997, P314,697,893,493,68 (20.68%).
In 1998, Joseph Estrada was elected President and took over for the second part of the year. In 1998, the collection was P337,176,733,278.60 (7.14%);
1999, 341,460,218.47 (1.23%);
2000, P360,802,319,136.98 (5.71%).
In 2001, Gloria Arroyo became President by virtue of a Supreme Court decision that said Erap had virtually resigned even if he had really not resigned at all. In 2001, P388,679,313,498.62, an increase of 7.73%;
2002, P394,549,175,342.61(1.51%); (You will remember that Commissioner Bienvenido Rualo quit in the middle of the working day in August during which he was booed at a general assembly at the BIR offices and after which Guillermo Parayno took over.)
2003, P426,010,478,820.03 (7.97%);
2004, P468,176,583,044.28 (9.90%);
Jose Mario Bunag took over in June 2005 and had these for collections:
2005, 542,696,669,124.33 (15.02%);
2006, P675,353,000,000,000.00 (20.28%).
For the first quarter of 2007, Bunag was ahead of 2006 by eight percent and was on target to do even better by the end of the second quarter. Instead, he was eased out because he was not on target to meet the revenue target of P89,647,000,000.00, an increase over actual 2006 collections of only 17.19%.
With the numbers that Bunag has posted in prior years, he is clearly the best achiever that the Arroyo government has ever had at the BIR. The 2007 target was easily achievable. To ease him out even before the half-year results were in was clearly a grievous error and was unfair to Bunag. His previous years show that the second half of the year was when the collection increased, enough to achieve his double-digit increases.
In 2005 and in 2006, under Buñag, BIR collection recorded double digit growth rates. (i.e. 15.92% increase in 2005 and 20.28% increase in 2006)
The BIR last achieved a double-digit growth rate in collection way back in 1997, or during the last year of BIR Commissioner Liwayway Vinzons-Chato.
In contrast, the collection of the Bureau of Customs in the same months (January-May 2007) that caused Teves concern over Bunag’s performance went down, compared with the same period in 2006. Yet, the Finance Secretary had nothing to say about the performance of the BOC commissioner. The DOF, and the entire government for that matter, has no established rating system for the “performance” of heads of agencies like the BIR commissioner. BIR collection targets set by the DOF, showed that targets were clearly unrealistic during the time of Buñag.
The DOF increased the collection target by almost 15% in 2006, by 23.49% in 2006; and by almost 13.27% in 2007 over collection target for 2006 (not over actual results of 2006)..
Clearly, the double-digit increase in the targets set for 2005, 2006 and 2007 can be considered “unrealistic,” if the recent history of the BIR is taken into consideration. Yet, Bunag was at least into double-digits. In recent years, the DOF actually realized that its stated BIR targets were too high. In 2001, the DOF even lowered the collection target of the BIR (i.e. P388 billion), compared to the P397-billion target in 2000, for a 2% reduction.
The DOF also lowered the target in 2003 (P424 billion) compared to 2002 (P447 billion).
Let us all await the BIR’s results for the year. The first half (January to June) would clearly still be Bunag’s and should be close enough to target. But, then, the second part of the year will show whether Gary Teves shot himself in the foot or elsewhere.
This administration does not know when it is already ahead of the game. Letting go of Bunag may well turn out to be a fatal error!
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Senators Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada and Juan Flavier both recorded a perfect attendance in the 69 session days of the last 13th Congress. Estrada and Flavier both attended all the 69 sessions without being late or absent even once, based on the records of the Senate roll call.
Jinggoy Estrada says that he will continue with his perfect attendance in the Senate to set an example among public servants. He said that government officials and employees should be diligent with their work to make relevant legislation for the country’s progress and the people’s welfare.
Said Jinggoy: “I work hard because that is my responsibility as an elected official and my duty is to serve the people.”
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Readers who missed a column can access www.duckyparedes.com/blogs. This is updated daily. Your reactions are welcome at duckyparedes@yahoo.com
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hvp (06.27.07)