BIR should improve its services or else…

BIR should improve its services or else…

“Ga pang galaiti sa kaugot!” This Akeanon expression could best describe my feelings to the present system of Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). I’m lost in words to translate it in English so I loosely translated it as *@#$%&*() *@#$%&*()!!!...
I would like to clarify that it is not the staff of BIR Aklan that I’m referring to here but the whole system of BIR.
Here is a narration of what happened to me and you be the judge if I’m my feeling is unjustified.
I applied to BIR for a transfer of Tax Identification Number (TIN) last December since that my TIN was obtained in Marikina last year. I was informed that I really have to make a long distance call to BIR Marikina, inform them that I need a transfer of TIN and fax a certain form. So I dialed the number given to me last December 18, 2007 at around 2:30 in the afternoon. After almost an hour of listening to a ringing phone with nobody answering, I gave up and thought to perhaps I should just try calling some other time. Perhaps they are busy preparing for the Holiday season.
Came January 3, 2008. Perhaps the personnel of BIR Marikina are not busy anymore so I called in the morning of that day around nine o’clock. After more than an hour, still, a ringing phone with nobody answering. I again tried in the afternoon but I only heard the same ringing phone and failed to talk to anyone from BIR Marikina.
My third try was last January 16. Since it was our “sad-sad”, I was able to sneak and have the time to call. I tried calling at around 8:30-9:15 in the morning. Still the same ringing phone. So I went to BIR Kalibo and informed them about my case. They explained that perhaps the number does not exist anymore since that they only took it from a BIR table calendar. I was given two new numbers. This time one number “does not exist” and the other one is a residence that has a Bisaya accent maid who told me to call at night “kase wala pa amo ku at di ku alam yan”. I returned again to BIR Kalibo. This time, I was given the number of BIR’s service center or call center. After a pretty voice that said “for inquiries, press 1” at last I was able to talk to a call center agent who gave me two new telephone numbers of BIR Marikina.
The two numbers are ringing but nobody’s answering. I dialed the two numbers alternately-and after another almost an hour try, at last somebody answered the phone! Wheeewww! Thanks God!
But the celebration was shortlived when he informed me that he was just a janitor and he gave the phone to another pretty voice who said that I called the wrong department and so she gave me the number of the department she claimed could help me.
Excited, I dialed the new number. It was ringing but nobody’s answering. Ohhh…perhaps everyone in BIR Marikina are so busy that nobody can pick up the phone. “Just try, perhaps somebody will pick up the phone.” I told myself. I gave up dialing when I saw the time is already twelve o’clock. Perhaps this afternoon I can try again… Came one o’clock and I returned to Pantelco with the familiar faces of the lady at the counter and the guard smiling beautifully to me.
Dial, just dial and hope that somebody in BIR Marikina will take notice of the ringing phone. Argggg!!..it’s already two thirty in the afternoon. Been inside the booth for almost an hour and a half dialing and
listening to ringing phone that even though the headset is away from my itching ear, I felt I’m still hearing a ringing phone.
I gave hope. This phone thing won’t do. Perhaps I should just return to BIR Kalibo and try asking for other remedy to my TIN problem. Anyway, all I need is a transfer of my TIN number.
And so, here I am again in the same office I had been twice this morning. The solution-write BIR Marikina through snail mail. I asked if there’s anyway I can access or contact BIR Marikina through the internet. “Internet? Sir, basi maayawan ka lang.” is the instant reply.
Well, in the age of information technology, the letter was sent in the hope that someone from an office who can’t answer a ringing phone will have the time to read a letter.
Still, I tried the internet thing. Anyway, even though “ayawan ako”, I have enough patience since that I have no choice. The result? Page not found for the services I think could help me.
I felt cheated by BIR that day. And why not? Isn’t it that the main reason why BIR exists is because the government has to tax dry the people so that it can fund its propaganda of booming economy and “better services” to the people?
Is BIR just after hardworking people’s money? Don’t a taxpayer like me who is the lifeblood of the Bureau deserve a better service? It just makes me sick every time I see big tarpaulins and billboards that say “this is where your taxes go” with faces of politicians smiling like a toothpaste endorser but see CRACKS on an UNFINISHED road concreting project. Then one just has to wonder how much was the kick back and the millions of pesos that was stolen from the taxpayer’s coffer.
Corruption is another story. They can have stealing galore if they want. They can be rich thanks to a poor me. I am already numb to corruption… but please, at least the BIR should have the nerve to do something to ease the taxpayer’s burden by providing better services so that taxpayers won’t have to lose precious time and productivity just for a simple thing as a Tax Identification Number.
If Friendster helped Magdalo leader Antonio Trillanes win a senate house and the CPP-NPA and MILF can utilize the internet for their causes, how much more the government?
I won’t be surprised if someday, we will just wake up with Jose Ma. Sison as our president if this kind of system won’t be fixed this early!
BIR fix your services, or else…
***
(For comments, email at nailbite3@yahoo.com)