MANILA, Philippines - The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has allowed authorized agent banks (AABs) to open or extend banking operations to assist the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in receiving tax payments.

BSP Deputy Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. issued Memorandum No. 2017–008 directing all BIR authorized agent banks to render banking services from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 1 and 8.

Authorized agent banks were ordered to extend their banking operations to 5 p.m. instead of 3 p.m. starting April 1 to 17.

Subject to submission of a notice signed by the bank president or officer of equivalent rank, Subsection X156.1 of the Manual of Regulations for Banks allows BIR authorized agent banks to open for two Saturdays prior to April 15 of every year, and daily from April 1 to income tax payment deadline, to extend banking hours to 5 p.m. from 3 p.m. to receive internal revenue tax payments.

The BIR has time and again urged the taxpaying public to file their income tax returns (ITR), months before the April 15 deadline to avoid the inconvenience of late filing.

A 25 percent surge, 20 percent interest per year and extra on the basic tax will be imposed on those who fail to file and pay their tax dues on or before the April 15 deadline.

The tax take of the BIR rose 9.5 percent to P1.575 trillion last year but this was short of the reduced collection target of P1.62 trillion from the original P2.025 trillion.

BIR Commissioner Ceasar Dulay attributed the shortfall to lack of manpower that has affected the agency’s collection efforts for the past few years.

Dulay believes exempting BIR personnel from the Salary Standardization Law will allow the government’s biggest revenue collecting agency to attract competent lawyers, accountants and other professionals that can boost revenue generation efforts.

For this year, the BIR is tasked to collect P1.83 trillion or about 79 percent of the total projected tax revenue of P2.31 trillion set by the national government.