By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

REVENUE and Taxation director Art Ilagan said yesterday his department couldn’t afford to take the 2.5 percent funding cuts proposed by the governor in the 2007 revised budget proposal.
The tax chief said a 2.5 funding cut would result in the furlough of 20 department employees, and would further slow down the agency’s tax collections.
At least $200,000 would be removed from the Department of Revenue and Taxation’s $8 million budget if the funding cut is implemented on his agency, Ilagan said.
“Right now, we can barely make do with what we have,” Ilagan said in an interview with Variety after testifying at the Legislature’s budget session.
“We have a lot of projects to implement and taxes to collect. We cannot let go of people while we are in the middle of our efforts to raise revenues for the government,” Ilagan said.
“All of my employees are working constantly. Nobody in my office just sits around to wait for something to happen. If you take off the payroll people who are working on tax collections and other projects, the process would take longer and the system would be inefficient,” he added.
The governor’s revised budget for 2007 seeks 2.5 percent appropriation cuts for all departments and agencies.
Last week, the Legislature agreed to restore the original funding level for the judiciary, but Vice Speaker Eddie Calvo, R-Maite and chairman of the taxation and economic development committee, earlier said he was not inclined to support any more restoration of original appropriations for any agency.
But Ilagan expressed confidence that the majority of the senators would agree to retain DRT’s original appropriation.