RDO Naga surpasses Q1 tax take target

NAGA CITY --- Naga City Revenue Office No. 65 (RDO-65) of the Bureau of Internal Revenue surpassed its tax collection target during the first quarter of this year. Its collection for the first quarter of the year reached P606.5M, way above its target of P546.1M from January to March this year. According to records of RDO-65, the highest actual collection was reported in January 2018 at P300M, compared to P176M during the same period last year. According to RDO-65 chief Leticia C. Arabit, the improved collection recorded an increase of 5.22% for the first quarter in 2018. This, despite the fact that collection in February 2018 was only P167M, which is lower than the target of P171.19M. This was, however, lifted up by collection in March, which soared up to P199M against its target of P139.5M. Arabit said, however, that tax collection, particularly the one experienced in February, was affected by the implementation of RA 10963 or the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) across the country. There was a significant decrease in the collection of withholding tax among the government workers and employees because of the lowered tax base. There was also low collection of withholding tax remittances from DepEd in the province covered by RDO-65, Arabit said. Among teachers 1&2 who are minimum wage earners, there was a reduction of as much as 73% in withholding tax collection. Under the TRAIN law, those earning below P25,000 a month are exempted from paying the income tax. In March last year, withholding tax remittances reached P34M, compared to only P8M in the ame month this year. Arabit said they will try hard to hit their collection target of P3.3B in 2018 by, among other others, focusing on the collection of delinquent accounts. DAbad-PIA5/Camarines Sur