The Philippine Tax Academy (PTA) has partnered with the University of the Philippines-Los Baños (UPLB) in Laguna for a joint program and possible sharing of facilities that will serve as a secondary campus for the continuing professional development of the country’s revenue officers, starting with the treasurers of the local government units (LGUs).
According to Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran, the PTA is now studying the possibility of using the UPLB’s College of Public Affairs and Development (CPAD) facilities near the Local Government Academy in Los Baños to help set up its training center.
“The DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) may build the structure for the PTA, which will then share common facilities with the UPLB-CPAD,” Beltran said in his report to Secretary Carlos Dominguez III during a recent Executive Committee (ExeCom) meeting of the Department of Finance (DOF).
The PTA has also submitted to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) its three-year Strategic Information Plan, which includes setting up an information system for the Academy to facilitate knowledge sharing, Beltran said.
During the launching in February of the PTA, Dominguez said this institution, which is the first of its kind in the country, will not only provide the country’s revenue collectors and administrators with continuing training on best practices to hone their competitiveness but will also sharpen their commitment to their profession and raise their ethical standards.
Dominguez said that on the watch of President Duterte, the DOF has taken a “great leap forward” in professionalizing revenue agencies by putting flesh to the PTA eight years after it was envisioned under Republic Act 10143.
In the course of the DOF’s strategic planning for the PTA, Dominguez said the Department had envisioned the institution to be “a fully functioning and self-sustaining dynamic and innovative center of excellence for capacitating tax and customs administrators, taxpayers and other stakeholders.”
Dominguez said he expects the PTA to collect information from all over the world and build strong linkages between research and education, while ensuring “complementarity between professional training and professional management.”
He also wants the PTA to be the tool for developing continuing cooperation with other professional associations, development and funding institutions as well as foreign governments.
According to Dominguez, he expects the professional development of revenue personnel honed at the institution to be based on the highest standards through the development of a “state-of-the-art” curriculum and the recruitment of trainers “of the best quality.”
Under RA 10143, the PTA “shall serve as a learning institution for tax collectors and administrators of the government and selected applicants from the private sector.”
This law provides that, “All existing officials and personnel of the BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue), the BOC (Bureau of Customs) and the BLGF shall be required to undergo the re-tooling and enhancement seminars and training programs to be conducted by the Philippine Tax Academy.”
It also requires “all applicants to the said bureaus” “to pass the basic courses before they can be hired whether on contractual or permanent status.”
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