By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

THE government of Guam hopes to raise $30 million in new revenues from the tax amnesty program and additional gross receipt tax collection, but with minimal staff at the Department of Revenue and Taxation, don’t be too optimistic, DRT director Art Ilagan said yesterday.
“It will be very difficult to meet that target because the revised budget took a huge amount away from my department. I can’t hire additional staff because that budget limits my spending ability,” Ilagan said, referring to Bill 74, which imposes over $18 million in cuts on agencies’ spending and balances the budget at $471 million.
Under Bill 74 — passed by the Legislature Friday and awaiting the governor’s action — at least $200,000 would be removed from DRT’s original appropriation of $8 million.
The budget cut is likely to result in furloughs in his department and slow down the agency’s tax collection efforts, Ilagan said.
Besides the budget reductions, Bill 74 also provides for revenue enhancement strategies, including increased fees, real estate tax amnesty, and an amendment to the Dave Santos Act, which lowers the business income threshold for GRT exemption from $50,000 to $40,000.
Ilagan said DRT needs a bigger staff to process the tax amnesty applications and GRT filings by business establishments that have lost their tax break privileges under Bill 74.
As for the fee increases, Ilagan said DRT will have to do public information initiatives about new fee structures before implementing them. “That, too, requires funding. We need to educate the public through media publications and information campaigns,” the tax chief said.
Attached to Bill 74 are over a hundred pages containing the increased rates for licenses, permits and various service fees levied by DRT, the Guam Police Department, the Department of Land Management, and the Guam Fire Department.