Pharmally supplier pays additional taxes amid Senate probe

MANILA, Philippines — Tigerphil Marketing, one of the suppliers of face masks for the controversial company Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp., paid additional taxes to the government as the Senate was investigating Pharmally on allegedly overpriced medical supplies, senators learned on Friday.

During a hearing of the Senate blue committee, Senator Panfilo Lacson cited a discrepancy in Tigerphil’s financial statement in 2020.

“If you look at your edited financial statement for year 2020, ‘yung declared amount of sales, nasa P3.479 million lang when in fact you have sold face masks to Pharmally amounting to at least P21.5 million. Kindly explain this discrepancy,” Lacson said.

In response, Tigerphil President Albert Sy told Lacson that the amended annual income tax return they paid was P1.13 million.

Lacson then asked Sy if Tigerphil would still pay additional taxes if the Senate did not conduct an investigation on the government deals with Pharmally, which were alleged to be overpriced.

“If the Blue Ribbon Committee did not conduct a hearing, would you pay the amended tax returns or payment? Would you have amended, if the Blue Ribbon Committee did not conduct hearings on Pharmally? Kasi ngayong araw lang kayo nag-amend… Why just now?” said Lacson.

Sy said they would have paid the right taxes even if the Senate did not conduct an investigation.

Meanwhile, Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Ceasar Dulay said it is auditing Tigerphil Marketing to check if they have paid proper taxes. Dulay noted that companies only have a certain period to amend the tax returns.

“They have just a certain period to amend the return. If it’s out of that period, then hindi na sila pwedeng mag-amend [then they cannot amend]. Pwede nang kasuhan ‘yan [A case can be filed already]. We are auditing them, Mr. Chairman,” said Dulay.

During an earlier hearing, it was disclosed that Tigerphil bought 500,000 masks from Greentrends Trading International Inc. at P18 apiece for a total of P9 million and sold them to Pharmally for P23.90 each for a total of P11.95 million. Pharmally then charged the PS-DBM P27.72 for each mask for a total amount of P13.86 million, according to Senator Richard Gordon, chair of the Senate blue ribbon committee.

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JPV