BIR charges supplier of PNP armored vehicles

It had been dogging lawyers and doctors of late, but on Thursday, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) turned its attention to a trader whose company was linked to alleged overpricing in the repairs of armored vehicles of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in 2007.

Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares said the trader, Remedios Pensotes, “willfully evaded” the payment of some P46.33 million in income tax by underdeclaring her company’s profits by P66.42 million.

“The scheme of Pensotes was to underdeclare her sales/revenues in her declaration resulting in a lesser taxable income in her ITR (income tax return) and thus, lower tax liability,” Henares said in a press briefing after filing the tax-evasion case in the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Henares said the complaint against Pensotes, owner of RJP International Trading Construction and General, was the 105th tax-evasion case filed by the BIR’s Run After the Tax Evaders program under the Aquino administration.

Henares disclosed that Pensotes’ company was a registered government supplier with the Department of Budget and Management under the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System.

In 2007, the BIR chief said, RJP won a contract to supply about P77.25 million worth of equipment to the PNP, including a contract to undertake repairs on 28 police light armored vehicles.

Despite the hefty contract, Henares said, Pensotes declared only P10.83 million as her company’s revenues and a net income of only P400,000.

The BIR also filed two counts of tax evasion against officials of Temps and Staffers Inc. (TSI), a manpower agency which provides casual employees to Samsung Phils., BDO Insurance Brokers Inc. and Globe Telecoms.

Charged in the DOJ were TSI president Arturo Guerrero and treasurer Vivian Guerrero for their alleged failure to pay the government almost P42.6 million in income and value-added taxes in 2009.