New three-storey BIR office soon to rise in Maasin

The government's tax collecting agency will soon have a building of its own here, to be erected in a site granted by the city government. The structure has a budget of P50 million for an initial two-storey building, with space reserved for a third floor, a beaming Alexander Laroza, Revenue District Officer (RDO) of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) District Office 90 here in the province, said during the Action Center Kapihan sa PIA Wednesday.

"The money is already with us, the bidding notice already posted in our website, and work may start anytime this year," Laroza said. He disclosed that a 1,700 square meter lot was set aside by the city government at the reclaimed area by the sea in barangay Combado as the permanent location of the BIR, and each floor has an area of 700 square meters. It will have amenities befitting a modern office, such as a spacious lobby and digital gadgets like the one used in banks where clients get numbers and wait for their turn to be served upon display of their numbers onscreen. The BIR has been renting office space in private commercial buildings within the city proper, its present site being at the second floor of the new Saint Joseph College (SJC) building in the High School Campus.

With a forthcoming house they can call their own, Laroza hoped the personnel complement will be increased for efficiency in tax collections, saying one personnel sometimes handles one or two towns as his/her scope of coverage.