The Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) said its digitalization initiative has reduced the corruption issues within the agency.

BIR Commissioner Romeo D. Lumagui Jr. said that the lessening of physical interaction of clients with the agency’s employees due to new digital processes has also minimized the abuse of power in the bureau.

“Kapag naman naging automated at online ang lahat at lesser yung ating face-to-face interaction with the taxpayer, mas talagang mababawasan po yan [corruption],” he said.

[When tax processes become automated and online and our face-to-face interaction with the taxpayer is less, corruption will be reduced even more.]

“At isa naman din yan sa naging concentration ng ating administrasyon na, of course, we have to address that. So, yan din ang talagang in-address ng ating digital transformation,” he added.

[That is also one of the concentration of our administration that, of course, we have to address that. So, that is what our digital transformation addresses.]

The BIR chief also stated that manual filers of BIR forms have also declined to around 30 to 40 percent, but noted that there are still clients who are resistant to doing it physically.

“Patuloy pa rin naman natin silang tinutulungan para ipakita na it's a more convenient way, kaya meron tayong mga sineset up ng mga e-lounges,” he further said.

"Our aspiration when we had our planning is by 2028, the BIR is highly digitalized already so maybe not 100 percent but definitely malaking improvement ang mararamdaman namin by 2028 (we will have huge improvement)," he added.

The BIR last year acquired a $400 million loan from the Asian Development Bank for the modernization of its tax administration processes.

It also beefed up its Digital Transformation program to convert the bureau into a data-driven organization by utilizing reliable, scalable, and robust digital technologies that elevate taxpayer experience.

Some projects under the program are the Online Registration and Update System (ORUS); Project 230X; Online Tax Clearance; Electronic Invoicing/ Receipting and Sales Reporting System (EIS); Enhancement of One-Time Transaction (ONETT) System; and Enhanced Digital Queueing System, among others.

The ORUS also manages the release of digital tax identification number IDs, which can be obtained online for free and at no charge.

To date, the BIR has already issued 102,046 Digital TIN IDs through ORUS.

Lumagui said that these digitalization processes would fast-track the collection of the agency, which targets a total of P3 trillion this year.