BIR e-payment collections up 92% to P1.2B in 2019

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said Wednesday it has collected around P1.2 billion in tax payments through electronic channels in 2019, up 92% from P626.35 million a year earlier.

The BIR also noted that the number of electronic tax payments reached 446,753 transactions last year, up 60% from 278,602 transactions done through e-channels in 2018.

In his report to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, BIR Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa said that the electronic payments were done through the Union Bank Online Tax Payment Facility using automated teller machines (ATMs) or debit cards, the PayMaya smartphone app and the PESONet fund transfer service.

For 2020, Guballa said that among the BIR’s targets are to further simplify its paper application forms and reduce processing times, the number of documentary requirements and signatories for taxpayers to enhance the bureau’s delivery of frontline services and help improve the ease of doing business.

Tax payments processed online increased remarkably in 2019 when the BIR, on Aug. 15, 2019, launched PESONet, an electronic funds transfer service which enabled the taxpayers to conveniently pay their taxes anytime and anywhere, according to the taxman.

PESONet aims to shift over 15 million over-the-counter tax payment transactions collected annually to this online payments service, in line with President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to cut red tape and improve the ease of doing business for the benefit of taxpayers and the businesses.

Finance Undersecretary Antonette Tionko, head of the Revenue Operations Group (ROG) of the Department of Finance (DOF), said that the shifting of over 15 million over-the-counter tax payment transactions to PESONet represents more than 80% of the total number of tax-payment transactions processed by the BIR each year.

The BIR’s goal is to further make tax payments convenient, efficient, and less costly for taxpayers, and at the same time, saving around P230 million yearly in transaction fees for the agency, according to Tionko.

The savings of P230 million will come from the lowering of transaction fees charged by Authorized Agent Banks (AABs) from P40 to only P25 under the PESONet-enabled facility.

PESONet was launched by the BIR in partnership with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Bureau of the Treasury (BTr), Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) and the payments industry.

The PESONet interoperable digital bills payment service is the latest payment infrastructure introduced by the payments industry under the National Retail Payment System (NRPS) policy framework of the BSP. 

PESONet, which can transact fund transfers electronically in large batches, has over 40 participating banks under its wing.

Through the E-PESO project, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) worked closely with the BSP, BIR, BTr, LandBank and private sector partners, including the Philippine Payments Management, Inc. (PPMI), Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) and the Philippine Clearing House Corp. (PCHC), to set up the PESONet tax payments service. 

The goal of the E-PESO project is to set up an interoperable digital bills payment service that is safe, reliable, efficient and will benefit a greater number of Filipinos, the BIR said. — MDM, GMA News