Taxpayers hit chaos, long lines at BIR QC ???
- From: Joekerr <joekerr3@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:47:25 -0700 (PDT)
Wow you mean some people actually pay on their own???
By Nancy C. Carvajal
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:43:00 04/08/2009
Filed Under: Local authorities, State Budget & Taxes
MANILA, Philippines – Taxpayers trying to beat the deadline for the
filing of income tax returns Wednesday complained about the alleged
chaos and lack of orderly system at the Bureau of Internal Revenue
office in Quezon City.
“It had always been like this here, every tax season, the long wait
and distribution of transaction numbers had always been an issue
between security guards and taxpayers,” Tony Cordera told the Inquirer
(parent company of INQUIRER.net) inside the BIR compound where
payments were being received at the Development Bank of the
Philippines branch.
Cordera’s complaints were echoed by others who were also waiting for
their turn to get a transaction number to pay their tax obligations.
A 24-year-old artist told the Inquirer that she had been trying to get
a transaction number for the past two days but continuously failed to
do so.
She narrated that she went to the BIR compound early morning on
Tuesday, but at around 11 a.m., a guard announced they would no longer
give out transaction numbers for the day, as the numbers of tax papers
for processing had reached its limits.
“I came back today and arrived here at around 6:45, and there were
already a lot of people ahead of me, but until 11:30 in the morning,
they have yet to give us the queue number,” she said.
Although chairs and tents had been provided to make the taxpayers
comfortable, plus a clean toilet, taxpayers grumbled over the long
wait and the uncertainty.
The artist added that their frustration was aggravated by seeing
others handing out spare queue numbers, while others had to wait for
hours to get one.
Cordera, who said he was there to pay their company tax, claimed he
arrived at the BIR compound as early as 6 a.m., but until 1 p.m.
Wednesday, he had yet to receive his queue number.
“We always come here early hoping that we can finish early, but we
have already waited for more than six hours and they have yet to give
us a transaction number,” Cordera said.
He added that they chose this DBP bank because it’s the only
accredited bank that accepts payments from nondepositors.
Volume of taxpayers
DBP branch manager Diana Bilang, when asked to comment on the
complaint, explained that the volume of taxpayers wanting to transact
in their bank had caused the slowdown, but assured taxpayers that they
were not giving special treatment to anyone.
“For those who are filing by volume, we allow them to get a minimum of
five queue numbers so they don’t have to line up again to complete
their transactions,” the manager explained.
She added “our policy is first come, first served basis. It would be
unfair to those who arrived early, but let them wait, because they
have to file more, and allow single payers to pay ahead of those who
arrived early,” she said.
She also explained that the volume of taxpayers that go to their bank
had continuously increased that they have to extend their banking
hours to accommodate the taxpayers.
According to the BIR branch chief Revenue Officer 4, Hermie Cedeno,
who had jurisdiction in the area, the complaints about the long hours
is not new.
“We have received complaints about the long wait, and we have
coordinated with the bank, but it’s the bank’s problem,” Cedeno told
the Inquirer when asked what the bureau could do to address the
taxpayers’ problems.
The deadline for the filing is on April 20.
.
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