• New tax payment facility now available via PESONet
Yuchengco-led Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) became the first private-owned bank to allow clients to settle taxes through its digital channels, supporting the efforts of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to achieve a cash-lite economy.
Eugene Acevedo, president and chief executive officer at RCBC, said RCBC depositors could now conveniently settle their tax obligations without going to the branch or through PESONet (Philippine EFT System and Operations Network).
“We are grateful for this great collaboration in making digital tax payments a reality, and delighted to be part of this milestone as the first private universal bank to offer this tax payment facility to our bank customers,” Acevedo said during launch held at the BSP headquarters in Manila.
The PESONet allows fund transfer processed in bulk and cleared at batch intervals from one account to one or several accounts maintained in different banks.
RCBC is the first private universal bank to be included as a source account within online portal of state-run Land Bank of the Philippines.
Link.BizPortal is Landbank’s ePayment channel that allows real-time settlement of monetary obligations which helps enable fast and efficient tax collection.
The service is initially available to taxpayers with deposit accounts with RCBC, Landbank and eventually, other banks.
“This will surely decongest bank branches from both bank and non-bank clients doing over the counter transactions for BIR payments,” Acevedo said.
The availability of electronic payment options is one of the many reforms of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to help improve tax compliance and collection.
RCBC chief innovation and inclusion officer Lito Villanueva said the collaboration would further promote BSP’s thrust in scaling the National Retail Payments System (NRPS).
Villanueva said the bank continues to ramp up its digital capabilities, such as onboarding of government transactions in order to provide Filipinos financial solutions that are convenient and inclusive.
BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi Fonacier said the central bank is ramping up the onboarding of government transactions to shift to digital as part of its goal to increase the level of cashless payments to 20 percent by 2020.
The BSP launched the NRPS in December 2015 to establish a safe, efficient, affordable, and reliable electronic payments system.