BIR chief no-show at sugar planters meet
Visayas Bureau
First Posted 14:35:00 11/22/2008
Filed Under: State Budget & Taxes, Politics, Agriculture, Food
BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental -- Negros Occidental Governor Isidro Zayco and 3rd District Representative Jose Carlos Lacson have decried the non-appearance of Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Sixto Esquivias IV during a scheduled dialog with sugar industry stakeholders here on Thursday.
Both Zayco and Lacson said Esquivias should talk to the sugar cooperatives in person so that they could reach an agreement with regards to the imposition in advance of the value added tax on their refined sugar.
BIR Regional Director Rodita Galanto had stated earlier that Esquivias would attend the dialog with the industry stakeholders at the Bacolod Pavillon Resort Hotel but the latter sent a deputy supposedly because he had to attend a last-minute meeting with Cabinet officials.
Lacson, who said he returned to Negros Occidental from Manila to attend the dialog, said he left the hotel when he learned that Esquivias did not arrive.
He said only the commissioner could make decisions with regard to the complaint over the value added tax imposed on sugar cooperatives, so the dialog was useless without Esquivias.
Some representatives of the sugar cooperatives also left upon learning of the commissioner's absence.
"They wanted to hear the BIR position from the horse's mouth and since the commissioner was not there they left," Lacson said.
The cooperatives had hoped to reach a win-win solution through the presence of the commissioner but the BIR might not want to resolve the issue, Lacson said.
Zayco said there was a need for both parties to reach a solution. "I want this to be resolved because the sugar industry is the pillar of Negros Occidental," he added.
BIR Deputy Commissioner for Operations Nelson Aspe, who came to represent Esquivias, said there was no serious discussion on the concerns of the sugar industry during his meeting with the millers and traders in Bacolod City.
Aspe said that he did not take up what he called the "hot issue" regarding Revenue Regulation 13-2008 that imposed an advanced value added tax on most sugar cooperatives.
"Considering that one party already brought the matter before the court, (it is) unethical to tackle the issue," he said.
In his cease-and-desist order issued last November 7, Regional Trial Court Judge Roberto Chiongson ordered the BIR Region 12 to stop implementing Revenue Regulation No 13-2008, which called for the imposition of advance VAT on the cooperative's refined sugar products.
Aspe said that the BIR would abide by the temporary restraining order against the imposition of advance VAT but it will only apply to the entity that filed the case in court, specifically the United Cadiz Sugar Farmers Association-Multi Purpose Cooperative.
A small group also picketed outside the Pavillon Thursday morning to denounce the BIR and call for the resignation of Finance Secretary Margarito Teves and BIR Regional Director Rodita Galanto.
Guillermo Barreta, spokesman of the Negros Alliance Against Poverty and Advance VAT that staged a picket at the entrance of the Bacolod Pavillon, slammed the BIR for lack of alleged transparency and for failing to address the sugar cooperatives’ complaints against the "illegal" imposition of advanced VAT.
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