BIR files raps vs. own workers for P6.4b in losses

THE Bureau of Internal Revenue on Thursday asked the Department of Justice to prosecute a BIR employee and his wife for violation of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, following alleged P6.4 billion in revenue losses due to an alleged sales suppression scheme the couple is accused of.

In a complaint, the BIR through Commissioner Romeo D. Lumagui accused BIR employee Aldwin Base, his wife Chiradee Base, and relative Jelson Vargas of violating Section 264-B of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 (Tax Code), as amended.

This was after the government said it lost P6.4 billion in revenues through a sales suppression scheme allegedly perpetrated by a software firm being operated by Base, his wife, and Vargas.

Section 264-B penalizes the “purchase, use, possess, sell or offer to sell, install, transfer, update, upgrade and keep, or maintain any software or device designed for or capable of modifying, hiding, or deleting electronic records of sales transactions and providing a ready means of access to them.”

It imposes a penalty between P500,000 to P10 million and imprisonment of not less than two years but not more than four years.

It also states that a cumulative suppression of electronic sales record in excess of the amount of P50 million shall be considered as economic sabotage and shall be punished in the maximum penalty provided under the same provision.

According to Lumagui, the Base couple are running the software management company identified as Basebyte Software Management and Consultancy Services (Basebyte).