By Jun Ramirez The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is expecting to raise P2.2 trillion this year through a no-nonsense tax collection campaign. Bureau of Internal Revenue (MANILA BULLETIN) Revenue Deputy Commissioner for Operations Arnel Guballa came out with the optimistic forecast during the BIR's 115th founding anniversary at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City. "From the start of the year, all activities are concentrated in meeting the collection goal," Guballa said. He said the vigorous tax collection initiatives resulted in generating more than P1.075 trillion for the first semester of the year which was more than P104 billion over the actual collection for the same period last year. The revenue official said more and more individual and business taxpayers are conscious of their financial obligations to the government due to punitive actions taken against tax offenders. Records showed that 175 tax evasion cases were filed, mostly against corporations, for their refusal to pay tax debts amounting to P11.5 billion while 367 businesses nationwide were padlocked. Some were allowed to resume operations after paying a total of P 638 million. Taxmen also visited 64,000 business establishments nationwide and collected P135 million fines mostly for non-registration. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 111 commended the BIR for its excellent collection performance. He said the BIR is "leading the charge" to improve the lives of the people, majority of whom are poor. Dominguez said the entire economic strategy of the Duterte administration will fail if the BIR fails to collect the right amount of taxes.