Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has favored a congressional bill granting a hefty salary hike to Bureau of Internal Revenue personnel to attract good professionals to enter and fill up the 10,000 vacant posts and stop the increasing number taxmen from leaving the service due to very low take home pay.
In a round table discussion with Manila Bulletin editors and reporters, the Finance chief said he is endorsing the salary high proposal to boost the tax collection efficiency of the men and women of the service and meet its annual collection assignment which stands at P1.892 trillion for this year.
“I don’t mind if their salary will be increased five times but their positions should be removed from the civil service umbrella to make it easier to fire those who persist in doing the old ways,” Dominguez said.
BIR Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay told a recent congressional hearing that many tax collectors have submitted their early retirement applications, mostly young Certified Public Accountants who joined the bureau few years ago.
Some lawyers also said they are also thinking of resigning but prevailed upon by the certainty of losing much of their retirement benefits if they prematurely leave the service.
The CPA gets a starting pay of only P17,000 and P27,000 for lawyer, salary insufficient to provide even the basic needs of a family.
Meanwhile, Dominguez disclosed that he has requested BIR Deputy Deputy Commissioner Nestor S. Valeroso to stay despite the latter’s scheduled retirement next week. “Anong retire retire, gusto nya magtampo si Digong?” Dominguez said.
He noted that Valeroso has been the work horse of the previous administrations, starting as a lowly tax collector in Mindanao to become the No. 2 man of the bureau 40 years later. (Jun Ramirez)
