PAGSANJAN, Laguna — Due to the government’s budgetary shortfall, a businessman offered a novel solution to remedy the situation – tax the grafters who have pocketed hundreds of millions of pesos in dirty money.

During his recent visit here, businessman Joey de Venecia III said the government is facing a huge budgetary deficit this year owing to the failure of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BoC) to hit their collection targets.

The expected shortfall caused BIR chief Sixto Esquivias IV to resign in shame last week.

As of the end of the third quarter this year, the BIR was off target by P39 billion. It was learned that the actual collections only hit P557 billion as against the target of P596.2 billion.

Replacing Esquivias as officer in charge is Joel Tan-Torres, who admitted that the government would be forced to take emergency measures to increase tax collections.

One such measure is the announced plan to impose a five-percent levy on campaign contributions.

De Venecia referred to the proposed tax in campaign contributions as “a useless palliative at best, and unconstitutional at worst.”
He said that even if the BIR were to charge the tax, the expected yield will only be about P1.5 billion, barely making a dent on the shortfall.

Joey de Venecia III, son and namesake of the five-term House Speaker, said the weak tax collection is a reflection on the trust that the people have on the present government.

He said Filipinos are generally willing to pay their taxes if they feel that they are getting something in return, and that their taxes are not pocketed by corrupt public officials.