Negros Oriental business have lauded the performance of Revenue Districy Officer Cresencio Agad for increasing tax collections by 32.53 percent for January and February.

In a joint resolution by the Negros Oriental Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Dumaguete, the businessmen praised Agad for making RDO 79 the second top performer for January 2010 with an increase of P14.26 million against, and for being the top performer in February 2010 with a 21.10 million increase over last February 2009’s collections.

The commendation was made in a letter addressed to BIR Commissioner Joel Tan-Torres and signed by the officers of the two chambers of commerce, led by NOCCI President Manuel Sagarbarria and FCCI Dumaguete President Alex Sy.

The resolution was also signed by Engr. Gregorio Uymatiao Jr., chair of the Negros Oriental Business Development Foundation Inc., and Ernesto Quiamco. In barely four months, RDO Cresencio A. Agad was able to reverse the seemingly irreversible tax collection performance of the previous RDO, the resolution noted. “We believe his success is mainly due to his very effective tax campaign and info drive, and his popular weekly Cable TV and radio program Ikaw ug ang BIR, complemented by continuous tax mapping/tax compliance drive, and constant dialogue with the taxpayers,” the businessmen said.

This performance, the resolution noted, was achieved “despite the several constraints such as the economic recession his short stint- having been transferred to RDO 79 only in August last year—and the low collection performance from January to September 2009. They asked Tan to review and adjust the 2010 tax collection goal of RDO 79 while expressing support for Agad’s proposals to increase the annual BIR tax collection in Negros Oriental and Siquijor.

These proposals are impose creditable withholding tax on the top 20,000 taxpayers on the RDO level, creditable withholding sugar liens on all sugar quedans, and the mandatory registration of all vehicles in the electronic database of the Land Transportation Office, the Air Transportation Office, and the Maritime Industry Authority.