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TUESDAI oCToBER t,20t9
House body zeroes in
on POGO taxation in
nexb crackdown phase
AS PART of an overall governmenl bid
better track Philippine olfshore gaming
operators (P0G0), the House of Repre-
sentatives Ways and Means committee
is drafting a billthat aims to make it
easierto collect taxesfrom the sector
"... [T]he House Ways dnd l4eans
committee has been studying the P0G0
situation... given thesystemic risk it
pases t0 the Philippine economy, in par-
ticular t0 the realproperty sectorand the
banking sector..." Albay 2'd District Rep.
Jose !1a. ClementeS. Salceda, committee
chairman, told repofiers on 14onday.
to The committee, however, willfocus the risk." he said "This is in a way of
immediately on taxing the indushy leqitimizinq POGO credtion - not iust
qrant of PAGCoR (Phil-
more effectively. th; of franchise
CoIp )
"The difficulty with P0G0s, urdrg ippine Amusement and Gaming
ur4 kdrdm,,;tan n9 (first of all, most lust like vape, nung frnax nattn nagtng
of the) fu nds tra nsfer are essentially legitimate sl/a (it became legitimate
through digital, so it is difficult to moni- when we taxed it)."
The Finance department has led
an
tor their revenues," said !lr. Salceda.
"Sa coDorate income tax, sa busi- eflort toform an interagency database
ness taxes, they areonly payinq P300 oi POGO foreign workers, based on
Labor
mlllion.So kasi ang hkap hhap niyan information from Department 0f
l-monilol pero madali i-monitor yung and Employment, Department of
.Justice, Bureau of lmmigration,
Depart-
seats (it is really difficultto monitor,
POGO, Syto ment of Foreign Atfairs, Professional
Requlatton C0mmission the Nationdl
lntelliqence co0rdinating Agencyand
the BIR, among others
PoGos must also now Present BIR
be
registration if their licenses are to
renewed bY PAGCoR
POGO, As of mid-August' PAGCoR said
it
fron 51/ I had qiven licenses t0 58 P0G0s employ-
inq about 138'000 foreigners, with
three
using the cunentscheme, how much tax that
more outfits awaiting approval at
they pay, but it willbe oasierto monitor regulator capped the totalat
time.The
taxation if based on seats)." imposed a moratorium
61 and has since
' Hence, Mr. Salceda said, the bill
on new aPPlitants
could impose a "plesumptive corponte
ln Pressing POGOS to withhold Per
income tax" of$i,000 Per seat, adding
sonal income taxes' especially of thelr
that the Bureau of lnternal Revenue
toreign workers' and lemit such collec-
(BlR) could colled about P76 billion a the
ti0n5 promptly to the government'
year from P0G0 taxes. from the
BIR collected some P14 billion
The government colleded about more than double
sector as 0f August,
P289 milli0n infranchise feesfrom the
the P579 rnillion last year and the P175
sector last year, !1t Salceda noted, but
million ln 20'17
its revenues totalled an estimated $20 The Firance department had esti-
billion. P24
mated thatthe government loses
Mr. salceda also said he has asked personal
billion annually in foregone
the Bangko Sentralng Pilipinas (BSP)
income taxes for every 100,000 unregis-
and the Philippine Statistics Authoritv
tered P0G0 workers.
(PSA) to include P0G0 sales underser- made
The government late lastweek
vice expods in order to help monitor the ofthe first "tax-dodging
an example
sector "lformally asked the BSP g0v-
POGO" to fallunder this campaign'
ernor (Benjamin E. Diokno) to include it
shuttelinq the Great Empire Gaming
asa separate item in the BoP (balance in subic
and Amusement corp's oftices
0f payments) account under service ex- in CentralLuzon, in ouezon
Freeport
ports. Sa NEDA (National Economic and
city and jn Aseana city in Paranaque
Development Authoity), dun sa PSA, I
citv after tinding out that the company
requested (Nati0nal Statistician) Dennis tax
was not registered for value added
(S.) l4apa, on ihe AIS - which is the
The BIR said the comPany has around
supply side: agliculture, industry' and,
8100 f0feiqn workers in ins Eastwood
services to have a separate line under
- facililY and 'a lew hundred more
in
servicesfor P0G0s. So we can control Ferens
Pannaque and Subicl' - V' A' C'
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