18/06/2025
If ain’t broke, don’t fix it, as this popular idiom goes. On the other hand, another oft-repeated adage says: If you can’t lick them, join them. As the head of the government’s chief public funds collecting agency, Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) commissioner Romeo Lumagui Jr. believes they must “evolve” with advances in digital technology among the measures to go after tax-shaving schemes.
More importantly, Lumagui vows to pursue aggressively the “digital transformation” of the BIR in line with the program of President Ferdinand “Bongb**g” Marcos Jr. (PBBM). Moreover, Lumagui pointed to the Law on Ease of Doing Business in which they at the BIR is mandated--in their case-- to make tax compliance easy and convenient for individuals and companies.
Speaking in today’s Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum, Lumagui cited the “digital transformation” as among the three pillars that he has instituted at the BIR since he assumed office in November, 2022. According to Lumagui, the two other two pillars guiding his stewardship at the BIR are, namely, hiring of more professional and service-oriented personnel; and, integrity of the institution and program.
If the three pillars are not enough, it is only then the BIR applies its “aggressive enforcement activities,” Lumagui explained. Such happened in many of the BIR raids against retailers of illegal vapes and smuggled ci******es that have cost the government of billions of pesos unpaid excise taxes, Lumagui pointed out.
Lumagui credited partly the much improved collection efficiency to the BIR’s automation of its services that encouraged voluntary tax compliance. Proof of which, he noted, the BIR have collected so far a total of one trillion pesos in tax payments from January to May this year. Or this is about nearly one-third of the collection target of P3.2 trillion for the entire year. Despite being one of the biggest revenue collecting agency of the government, the BIR operates only with P15.9 billion budget for this year.
Lumagui’s performance in office, however, did not get unnoticed. The courtesy resignation of the BIR chief was among those declined by PBBM two weeks ago. Lumagui was also among the first to submit his courtesy resignation along with his immediate boss, Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Ralph Recto.
A lawyer by profession, Lumagui first worked in private law firms for ten years before transferring to government service in 2016. As a tax lawyer, he had been designated to the project management and implementation service, which develops and oversees the implementation of the overall reform or modernization program of the BIR. He was first promoted as technical assistant to the BIR commissioner before being designated as tax fraud head for several regions. He was also deputy commissioner prior to assuming the BIR top post.
The 46-year old Lumagui graduated from Ateneo Law School in 2005 and passed the bar in 2006. He also holds a commerce degree from De La Salle University.
For more details of our conversations with him at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay, please read my Commonsense column this Friday at The Philippine Star.
📷 b**g son
