DOF secretary supports hefty salary hike for BIR personnel
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III is in favor of a congressional bill that seeks to grant a hefty salary hike to Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) personnel to attract good professionals to enter and fill up the bureau’s 10,000 vacant posts and stop the increasing num-
ber of taxmen from leaving the service due to very low take home pay.
In a round table discussion with Manila Bulletin editors and reporters, Dominguez said he is endorsing the salary hike proposal to boost the tax collection efficiency of the men and women of the service and meet its annual collection assignment which stands at 11.892 trillion for the year.
“I don’t mind if their salary will be increased five times but their positions should be removed from the civil service umbrella to make it easier to fire those who persist in doing the old ways. They will have to give up their security of tenure,” Dominguez said.
Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay told a recent congressional hearing that many tax collectors have submitted their early retirement applications, mostly young certified public accountants (CPA) who joined the bureau a few years ago.
Some lawyers also said they are also thinking of resigning, but prevailed upon by the certainty of losing much of their retirement benefits if they prematurely leave the service.
The CPA gets a starting pay of only 117,000 and 127,000 for a lawyer, salary that is insufficient to provide even the basic needs of a family.
Meanwhile, Dominguez disclosed he requested Revenue Deputy Commissioner Nestor S. Valeroso to stay despite the latter’s scheduled retirement next week.
“Anong retire retire, gusto nya magtampo si Digong (President Duterte)?” Dominguez said.
He noted that Valeroso has been the work horse of the previous administrations, starting as a lowly tax collector in Mindanao to become the number two man of the bureau 40 years later.
Dominguez said Valeroso is the author of various tax enhancement measures like bench marking, profiling, “Oplan Kandado” and tax mapping, or street-by-street survey of taxpayers nationwide.