By Lawrence Agcaoili

THE Bureau of Internal Revenue missed its collection target last year by at least P60 billion because of a weakening economy and the tax relief measures adopted to soften the impact of the global financial crisis.

Preliminary figures showed the agency only managed to collect about P53 billion in December 2008, P17 billion short of its P70-billion collection goal, said Nelson Aspe, deputy commissioner for operations at the bureau.

The bureau was tasked to collect P845 billion for the year, or 18.4 percent more than the P713.6 billion it collected in 2007.

With the huge shortfall in December, Aspe said, the agency likely missed its full-year goal by at least P60 billion.

In 2007, the bureau missed its collection target by P52.2 billion.

Still, collections estimated at P785 billion were 10 percent higher than the P713.6 billion collected in 2007.

The year-end estimate is even lower than the P810 billion that the Finance Department projected would be collected.

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves yesterday said his department would ask the President to certify as urgent a bill that would raise excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol to raise revenue.

?We need the revenues now to increase the level of spending,?? Teves said, referring to an infrastructure buildup aimed at stimulating the economy.

In the House, Speaker Prospero Nograles said the bicameral conference committee on the proposed P1.415-trillion national budget would likely be finished Wednesday, and would submit the final bill to Congress for ratification.

The Palace had earlier appealed to Congress to pass the budget, saying the delay was jeopardizing the country?s chances of weathering the global crisis.

Because of high oil and food prices and the global financial crisis, the Philippines abandoned its commitment to balance the budget last year and moved that target back to its original 2010 schedule.

The Philippines faces a wider deficit of P102 billion, or 1.2 percent of the gross domestic product, this year from a projected P75 billion, or 1.0 percent of GDP, last year due to the impact of the global crisis.

The Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee has scaled down the projected economic growth, as measured by the GDP, to range of 4.1 percent to 4.8 percent instead of the original 6.3 percent to 7.0 percent for last year.

Last October, Malaca?ang appointed Sixto Esquivias IV as the new internal revenue chief replacing resigned commissioner Lilian Hefti. Esquivias only assumed office last November.

For 2009, the bureau is tasked to collect P968.3 billion or 14.6 percent higher than the programmed collection of P845 billion for 2008. But the Finance Department sees the agency collecting only P915 billion this year due to the economic slowdown. With Joyce Pangco Pa?ares and Roy Pelovello