THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) will start collecting from foreign workers this month billions of pesos in unpaid income taxes, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd said on Monday.

“I…just talked to the BIR last week and they said they [were ready] to start [collecting] foreign workers’ (unpaid income taxes),” he told reporters on the sidelines of Pre-State of the Nation Address (SONA) Economic and Infrastructure Forum” at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay.