Ong Kin King main store padlocked

The main store of Ong Kin King & Co. Inc. on Plaridel St., Cebu City was padlocked yesterday by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) for allegedly issuing non-registered receipts and tampering with point of sales (POS) machines.

BIR 13 Director Eduardo Pagulayan Jr. also closed five Ong Kin King business establishments last July, including three restaurants, a commissary and a grocery store, on orders of their head office in Manila for violations of the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC).

When asked why BIR is closing these establishments, Pagulayan said is their “administrative remedy” under Section 155 of the tax code.

Pagulayan said that although Ong Kin King has permits for the POS machines, and the BIR approved the “four point something,” the same machines were tampered with to make it “three point something” which is already “We sealed all these POS machines because we will use it for the criminal charges that we filed against Ong Kin King before the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office,” Pagulayan said.

In a separate interview with SunStar Cebu, Ong Kin King owner, Frederick Ong, said he was surprised why his main store was closed as they were not given tax assessment.

Ong said they are 100 percent compliant with their tax obligation. He said that he has been in the business for 60 years, and this is the first time that his establishments are closed, affecting micro and small entrepreneurs who depend on these stores for their supplies, and dozens of their employees.

He said that before, they were on volume wholesale. But to help the small entrepreneurs, they shifted to retail trade of baking ingredients and other merchandise. /