Tropical depression Ondoy and typhoon Pepeng did not only destroy properties worth billions of pesos but also wiped out all chances of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to meet its P798-billion collection target for the year.

Top revenue officials said that in the aftermath of the storms business enterprises in Metro Manila and provinces adversely affected by the storms have started claiming losses in their quarterly income tax returns.

BIR officials didn’t predict how big a bite the storms would have on collections but said it would be “very huge.”

The officials who requested anonymity said that even before the storms the agency had been hard-pressed in meeting monthly collection targets because of laws increasing individual tax exemption and lower corporate tax rates.

They said it is not only income tax collections that will slide down but also value-added and percentage taxes which contribute roughly 30 percent of the annual total take.

The VAT take averages at around P14 billion monthly.

"The twin storms have practically wrote finish to our all-out efforts to meet the collection goal for the year," one revenue official said.

Records showed the BIR raised P500 billion from January to September.