Senate backs BIR pay hike

The Senate is backing a proposal to raise the salaries of employees of the Bureau of Internal Revenues through exemption from the Salary Standardization Law.

Senators Juan Edgardo Angara, Juan Miguel Zubiri and Ralph Recto filed Senate Bills 1314, 1315 and 1316, respectively, all seeking to include the BIR in the list of exempted agencies from the SSL.

Angara, who chairs the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, said raising the salary grade of BIR personnel would help attract more competent job applicants and therefore, increase the capacity of the agency to collect tax revenues.

“I think it’s long overdue. When we look at the situation at the Bureau, half of their positions are vacant, and the important positions at that—the lawyers and CPAs (certified public accountants),” Angara told reporters.

“If we cannot attract talented (employees), how can we expect our revenue to grow?” he said.

The BIR currently has 9,835 employees, less than half of its total plantilla of 21,491.

Angara also pointed out that offering better compensation to BIR personnel would help eliminate, if not, minimize corruption in the revenue-collecting agency.

“We’ve done it for agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission, Insurance Commission, University of the Philippines, so why not the BIR, which produces 80 percent of our revenue and has a reputation of being one of the most corrupt?” Angara said.

The government loses billions of pesos from tax leakages brought about by tax avoidance and evasion schemes, which are at times in connivance with corrupt revenue officials.

“This is not just an anticorruption measure, but an administrative reform to hike our collections. There should be performance benchmarks attached to any increase to ensure better services and improved accountability of the officials and employees,” Angara said.

Currently, an entry- level accountant in the SEC and the Insurance Commission earns P50,000 a month, while the same position in the BIR only receives P19,000 a month.

A newly- hired lawyer in the BIR receives P35,693 while the same position gets paid P53,753 in the SEC and P66,524 in IC.

“I don’t know if it’s going to be referred to my committee. It might be referred to the finance or the civil service. But if it’s referred to my committee, I would prioritize it,” Angara said.

Angara said the BIR’s SSL exemption should be paired with the creation of a National Taxpayer Advocate Office.