Eastern Samar expects over ₱100-M taxes from mining firms
The government of Eastern Samar said that it looks forward to more than ₱100 million in excise tax collections from mining companies.
Eden Ivy Rose Balagasay, the province’s legal officer, said the province has been coordinating with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to determine exactly how much excise taxes the miners have thus far paid and the amount of share Eastern Samar would get.
Based on data from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), Balagasay said that the provincial government expects to get over ₱100 million from the miners’ excise tax payments.
“To be safe, we can say that based on the production reports and data submitted to us by MGB, we are expecting our share to be more than ₱100 million,” she said.
However, Balagasay said that they do not expect to get the whole amount right away because of the tedious process of documenting all payments.
“What the DBM will likely release to us is just a portion of that amount that will have been documented and crosschecked by then, and then certified by the BIR and BTR,” she stated.
Balagasay, who is also Eastern Samar’s representative in the inter-agency Multipartite Monitoring Team (MMT) for mining, said that as of the latest followup, the Revenue Accounting Division (RAD) at the BIR central office was still processing the pertinent tax data.
Unpaid real property taxes
On the other hand, mining companies were asked to settle their unpaid real property taxes (RPTS) due to the province and their host municipality of Guiuan.
Eastern Samar’s Provincial Treasurer Antonia Macawile, citing provincial government data, said that six miners have combined RPT arrears of over ₱133,866,943 based on the aggregate volumes listed in their chromite and nickel ore stocks transport permits (OTPS),
Although the provincial government has no regulatory control over miners, Eastern Samar government is keen to ask the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to revoke their Mineral Production Sharing Agreements (MPSA) should they fail to settle their tax obligations, said Provincial Assessor Manuel Baldono.