ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in this city has step up its drive in revenue collection aimed at meeting the target goal collection for 2011 that is pegged at P1.629 billion.

Zamboanga City Revenue District Officer Merlyn DV Vicente said her office has recently adopted few but effective measures to enhance the collection of revenue for Revenue District 93-A.

She said the measures are aimed at helping them improve or even surpass the given revenue goal for this year.

Vicente, who just assumed office here last January, also reported that her office has surpassed the collection that her predecessor recorded last year, covering the same period, by 18.19 percent.

Records at the local revenue office here showed that Vicente collected P786,701,318.75 from January to June this year, an increase by about P121,100,723 as compared to P665,600,595.75 that was collected for the same period in 2010.

“The big bulk in revenue collection comes from the implementation of government projects for the city, and this year, the city has few government projects scheduled for implementation, an indication that we can only collect minimal revenue under this category,” she said.