The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is eyeing to build a national contact center next year for public inquiries as it strives to fully digitalize operations by 2027.
BIR Commissioner Romeo Lumagui Jr. on Wednesday said the government agency is seeking a budget of P200 to P300 million to set up the contact center at its main office in Diliman, Quezon City.
He said the contact center will need at least 250 agents and will offer toll-free calls which will specially benefit the people in the provinces.
Based on a BIR survey, Lumagui said more than half of its transactions could be done through phones.
“This will be very helpful to rural residents as some of them have to cross the sea or travel for 12 hours just to reach a BIR office and inquire,” he told DAILY TRIBUNE on its online show Straight Talk.
Lumagui said the BIR has been struggling with answering calls from the public due to its lean manpower.
“Currently, our agents have to deal with both walk-in visitors at the BIR offices and the phone callers. A labor force of 250 is small compared to the 1,000 of government agencies in other countries,” he said.
The BIR also uses a chatbot named Revie to answer public inquiries and complaints about the non-issuance of receipts by commercial establishments and to receive information about unscrupulous BIR agents.
Lumagui said this is one of the anti-corruption measures against BIR agents who extort money from taxpayers for minor differences in paid amounts or slight delays in payments.
“This is an avenue that helps the BIR ensure its integrity. If records show that the taxpayer has been fulfilling his duties over the years, there should be no room for negotiation with agents that signal corruption,” he said.
“Confusion sometimes arises from the mixed filing of documents by taxpayers who submitted their returns using manual and electronic methods. Sometimes, bank transfers are also late,” Lumagui added.
To accelerate the shift to digital tax services, the BIR has been operating e-lounges at district offices.
The Department of Finance announced last December that the BIR has been carrying out 16 digitalization projects consisting of pilot and completed projects. The BIR aims to complete a total of 27 digitalization projects.
The current digital services are the online registration and update system, electronic filing and payment, electronic forms and audited financial statements, and electronic one-time transaction system (eONETT).
Lumagui said that over 500,000 Filipinos have received their digital TIN and 85 percent of all payments have been done electronically.
Through eONETT, which eases the filing of documents and monitoring of taxes related to the sale of real property, donations, and estate taxes, the BIR collected P4.79 billion and posted 36,000 related transactions.
Lumagui said he is confident the BIR will hit its tax collection target of P3.23 trillion for this year.
He said this will be partly driven by intensified information activities on digital services and investigations against illegal tobacco manufacturers.
“Some of them have been evading excise taxes by appearing to be locators in the country’s economic zones but they are selling products domestically. The law excludes firms from such tax if they produce tobacco for export,” Lumagui said.
The Marcos administration aims to collect a total of P6.326 trillion in government funds this year. Lumagui said the BIR will strive to fill 70 percent of the total target for government funds.