Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner Lilia C. Guillermo has held a marathon zoom meeting with key field officials to raise more cash from tax collections amid the plan to revive the economy from the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The closed-door conference, which started 8 a.m. and ended early evening Thursday, was attended by regional directors nationwide and the head of the large taxpayers service (LTS).
Insiders said the discussions centered on the close monitoring of the voluntary payment of taxes which generates 97 percent of the annual total take of the bureau.
The same source said the conferees agreed to follow Guillermo's strategy and pledged to do their utmost in reaching their individual collection assignments totalling to P2.438 trillion.
She instructed them to watch daily the tax compliance of both businesses and government entities subject to taxation.
Guillermo said negligent taxpayers should be immediately notified for non-compliance.
The vigilance centered on the payments of local government units, government owned and controlled corporations, the national government agencies, selected taxpayers under the tax account management program (TAMP).
The remittances of top withholding agents, the reportorial requirements of electronic sales, point-of-sales and the electronic filing and payment systems.
The meeting neither mentioned key personnel changes nor resumption of investigation of suspected tax cheats which was suspended by then Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III.
Insiders said Guillermo was not keen in conducting outright investigation which generates only three percent of the yearly collection.
Fiscal authorities assigned P1.5 trillion of the collection goal to the LTS which exclusively audits big businesses including multinationals and sister companies.
The balance is shared by the regional offices.