The government will be able to save some P230 million in transaction fees annually with the recently-launched digital tax payments system which allows Filipinos to pay their taxes online, the Department of Finance (DOF) said.
The DOF said in a statement over the weekend the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) estimated savings of P230 million from the lowering of transaction fees charged by authorized agent banks (AABs) from P40 to P25 under the PESONet-enabled facility.
Launched by the BIR last August 15, the PESONet-enabled payment facility will allow millions of taxpayers to pay internal revenue taxes digitally anytime, anywhere, through digital channels provided by banks.
The DOF said the new interoperable digital bills facility aims to shift over 15 million tax payment transactions collected over the counter annually to the PESOnet online tax payments service, making the duty of paying taxes convenient, efficient and less costly for taxpayers.
Antonette Tionko, DOF undersecretary, said this represents more than 80 percent of the total number of tax payment transactions processed by the BIR each year.
Tionko earlier said the recent launch of the PESOnet-enabled tax payments service marks the start of the use of interoperable digital bills payment for taxes and other utilities in the country.
“Under this initiative, the BIR is the first government biller institution to pilot and adopt the interoperable digital bills payment service for tax collection,” Tionko said.
The BIR launched the facility in partnership with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Bureau of the Treasury, Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank) and the payments industry.
This tax payment service is currently available only via Landbank and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. But the DOF plans to expand the service to include other AABs as well as other bills and utilities.
