MANILA - The heightened Bureau of Internal Revenue's (BIR) digitalization transformation (DX) programs, complemented by its growing workforce of young and skilled professionals under the Duterte administration, enabled the agency to steadily improve its collection performance and broaden the taxpayer base in 2021. In his report to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, BIR Commissioner Caesar Dulay said 4.63 million business taxpayers were registered last year despite the pandemic, representing a 5.14-percent increase from the previous year's 4.41 million registered businesses. Since President Rodrigo Duterte took office, the BIR's collection steadily grew from PHP1.58 trillion in 2016, to PHP1.78 trillion and PHP1.96 trillion in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The highest so far was in the pre-pandemic year of 2019, when collections amounted to PHP2.19 trillion, before dipping to PHP1.96 trillion at the height of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) global outbreak in 202