By Katrina Mennen A. Valdez
Source: www.manilatimes.net
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is keen on replacing its frontline personnel with ones who have transparent “glass top” to prevent them from getting bribes from taxpayers with deficiencies. Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares said during an exclusive roundtable with reporters and editors of The ManilaTimes on Friday that if Customs chief Angelito Alvarez introduced the drawer-less desk for Bureau of Customs employees, the BIR will take a similar step but would recommend desks with glass top for its revenue officers.
“I’d like to replace their [employees] drawers with glass top. It signifies transparency and at the same time anything in there [drawers] would be easily seen, thus depriving them [examiners] of concealing [dirty] deeds,” Henares added.
The desks or drawers of revenue officers are susceptible to being used as temporary storage for bribe money from taxpayers with deficiencies or violations.
The BIR accounts for at least two-thirds of the government’s revenue take and is in charge of collecting P860 billion this year, while the Customs bureau contributes about 25 percent and must raise P280 billion.
The Internal Revenue agency has about 12,000 employees nationwide, of which at least 2,000 are tax examiners. Henares said that while the number of BIR’s workers has not increased since 1990, she has no intention of hiring more personnel.
Instead, sshe added, the bureau will retrain its crop of workers at present.
For next year, the BIR was given a budget of P3.258 billion for maintenance and operating expenses, and P46.630 million for capital outlay.
The budget of the agency for this year is P5.327 billion.
Henares said that she is reengineering the BIR by requiring revenue officers to be more pro-active in running after delinquent taxpayers so the government’s revenues from taxes will increase.
She added that all employees from rank-and-file to those occupying career-level positions will have sufficient time to prove themselves that they deserve to be retained or promoted.
The non-performers will be fired under the Lateral Attrition Law, Henares said.
“It would always be meritocracy that would prevail. We do not want to hire more employees as we only have minimal budget. And (getting) additional people requires more [office] space [for BIR], which is another budget constraint,” she added.
Source: www.manilatimes.net
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is keen on replacing its frontline personnel with ones who have transparent “glass top” to prevent them from getting bribes from taxpayers with deficiencies. Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares said during an exclusive roundtable with reporters and editors of The ManilaTimes on Friday that if Customs chief Angelito Alvarez introduced the drawer-less desk for Bureau of Customs employees, the BIR will take a similar step but would recommend desks with glass top for its revenue officers.
“I’d like to replace their [employees] drawers with glass top. It signifies transparency and at the same time anything in there [drawers] would be easily seen, thus depriving them [examiners] of concealing [dirty] deeds,” Henares added.
The desks or drawers of revenue officers are susceptible to being used as temporary storage for bribe money from taxpayers with deficiencies or violations.
The BIR accounts for at least two-thirds of the government’s revenue take and is in charge of collecting P860 billion this year, while the Customs bureau contributes about 25 percent and must raise P280 billion.
The Internal Revenue agency has about 12,000 employees nationwide, of which at least 2,000 are tax examiners. Henares said that while the number of BIR’s workers has not increased since 1990, she has no intention of hiring more personnel.
Instead, sshe added, the bureau will retrain its crop of workers at present.
For next year, the BIR was given a budget of P3.258 billion for maintenance and operating expenses, and P46.630 million for capital outlay.
The budget of the agency for this year is P5.327 billion.
Henares said that she is reengineering the BIR by requiring revenue officers to be more pro-active in running after delinquent taxpayers so the government’s revenues from taxes will increase.
She added that all employees from rank-and-file to those occupying career-level positions will have sufficient time to prove themselves that they deserve to be retained or promoted.
The non-performers will be fired under the Lateral Attrition Law, Henares said.
“It would always be meritocracy that would prevail. We do not want to hire more employees as we only have minimal budget. And (getting) additional people requires more [office] space [for BIR], which is another budget constraint,” she added.
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