Praises for the BIR Call Centre

I'm not really very generous in giving compliments to Philippine government agencies. Not that I'm whiner. But most of the time these agencies are just damn slow and inefficient; not to mention that their staff tend to be arrogant.

But today I had one of the better experience dealing with one of them. Earlier this morning, I called up the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) contact center to inquire about my Tax Identification Number (TIN) which I eventually lost track. I had to navigate through to the menu but eventually I got hold of an agent who coincidentally called herself, Tin. (I'll ask Tin for my TIN... got it?).

I explained to her that I'm calling from Singapore and had not lost track of my TIN since I haven't been paying any income tax back home (obviously OFW's, as we call ourselves, are not required to pay income tax to income earned outside of the Philippines). After which, she proceeded to take my particulars and placed my call on hold for a few seconds (during which, I surmise, she attempted to bring up my details from their database). When she returned she asked some more particulars for verification and... voila... Tin carefully recited my TIN back over the line. I noticed that she was very attentive of the fact that the line was a bit that she proceeded with the task of speaking slowly and deliberately; I echoed back encouragingly to signal that I'm hearing her quite well. When she finished she asked for me to recite it back one more time for her to verify.

And that's it. That's the fastest dealing I had with any Philippine government agency... less than 10 minutes. In any case, these sort of transactions need not take very long. And I appreciate that BIR handles this very sensibly.

Honestly, while dialling BIR's number, I already anticipated that they'll ask me to fill up a form... execute an Affidavit of sorts... get a Notary Public at the Philippine Embassy to place a notarial seal on it... mail the form and affidavit to BIR... etc. I'm very glad they they didn't. And I really appreciate the thought and effort that the people in BIR put in place to ensure that citizens' concerns are addressed efficiently without the red tape.

I hope more agencies follow their example.

For those who are curious what BIR's contact centre number is, it is: +63 (2) 981 8888.

They also have an email support: contact_us@cctr.bir.gov.ph

Do check their web site for updates (as these contact information may be updated anytime): http://www.bir.gov.ph/