“The People?s Champion? Manny Pacquiao has taken on another endorsement, this time for the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
The BIR chose Pacquiao to be its endorser in order to boost tax collections.
?The Pacman? is featured in a television commercial where he urges his fellowmen to pay their taxes rightfully.
The commercial bears the message, ?Ating pagtulungan kaunlaran ng bayan. Buwis ay bayaran.?
Pacquiao reportedly did not charge a talent fee for being part of the advertisement.
He shot for the TV ad before going to the United States to train for his May 2 fight against Ricky Hatton in Las Vegas.
The BIR, however, revealed that the commercial will not be aired as often as they want to because they lack funding for TV spots.
?Alam naman natin ang kamahal ang TV spots hindi ba? So ang timing lang natin di magiging kasing dalas ng according to what we want. Natural lamang dahil sa tayo ay nagtitipid,? said BIR Commissioner Sixto Esquivias IV in an interview on ABS-CBN?s ?Umagang Kay Ganda.?
?Siguro ang timing na napaka-importante, yung palapit na ng deadline ng filing ng income tax returns. More or less mapapadalas ang paglabas ng mga commercials na yan,? added Esquivias.
April 15 deadline
The BIR has appealed to the public to pay their taxes before the April 15, 2009 deadline.
An amount of P865 billion is expected to be collected by the BIR this year.
However for the first two months of the year, the BIR?s tax collection is already short of P2 billion.
Esquivias attributed the lack of collections ?more or less? to the passage of Republic Act 9504, which he said pertains to the exemption of minimum wage earners and the increase of personal and additional exemptions of employees.
He also noted that a lot of companies have closed and many people were retrenched because of the economic slowdown.
?So talagang bumababa ang koleksyon namin from withholding tax on compensation,? said the BIR commissioner.
He also mentioned that the BIR has ordered the closure of many businesses through ?Oplan Kandado.?
?Doon sa Oplan Kandado, may kapangyarihan ang commissioner ng BIR ayon sa batas to order, to close temporarily the business operations of taxpayers who are found to be guilty of any of the following grounds: failure to issue receipts or invoices, failure to file a tax return, understatement of sales or receipts by more than 30 percent, and failure to register (the business),? noted Esquivias.
