from Malaya
http://www.malaya.com.ph/02172010/news9.html
FIVE of six presidential contenders yesterday said at a forum sponsored by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry they are against a Bureau of Internal Revenue ruling imposing a P7.34 billion retroactive tax on Pilipinas Shell Petroleum’s imports of blending gasoline from 2004 to 2009.
Manuel Villar, Benigno Aquino III, Joseph Estrada, Richard Gordon and Eddie Villanueva all agreed inconsistent policies would discourage investments.
The lone supporter of the BIR action, Gilbert Teodoro, said the new ruling should be respected as there is no prohibition on the slapping of back taxes and there is a need to address the gaping government deficit.
At issue is the ruling in December 2009 of BIR Commissioner Joel Tan Torres which reversed his predecessors’ position that the catalytic cracked gasoline and light catalytic cracked gasoline imported by Shell were raw materials and, thus, exempt from payment of excise tax.
Over 700 business and industry leaders attended the forum.
Villar was initially non-committal since he said the case is already before the courts.
He later said BIR should not apply the ruling retroactively because this would discourage foreign investors.
"We must observe the law and be pro-active as far as Pilipinas Shell is concerned," he said.
Villanueva said government must "exercise truth and fairness in dealing with businessmen."
Gordon said if elected, he would remove the quota imposed on BIR collections.
Aquino said government should refrain from imposing more taxes on business at a time of high unemployment.
Estrada said there is no need for new taxes if only BIR is doing its job.
Estrada said that if elected, he would lower corporate taxes and see to it that revenue collectors are regularly re-shuffled because the agency is the biggest source of graft and corruption in government.
All candidates favor the lifting of the constitutional prohibition on foreign ownership of media, land and educational institutions.
Aquino said that to improve the investment and economic climate, "we must target graft and corruption that scares away investments and saps public confidence."
He said that last year alone, around P280 billion was been lost to corruption. The amount, he said, could have built 280,000 schools or 560,000 classrooms, bought 280 million sets of textbooks or train thousands of teachers. – Jay Chua
FIVE of six presidential contenders yesterday said at a forum sponsored by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry they are against a Bureau of Internal Revenue ruling imposing a P7.34 billion retroactive tax on Pilipinas Shell Petroleum’s imports of blending gasoline from 2004 to 2009.
Manuel Villar, Benigno Aquino III, Joseph Estrada, Richard Gordon and Eddie Villanueva all agreed inconsistent policies would discourage investments.
The lone supporter of the BIR action, Gilbert Teodoro, said the new ruling should be respected as there is no prohibition on the slapping of back taxes and there is a need to address the gaping government deficit.
At issue is the ruling in December 2009 of BIR Commissioner Joel Tan Torres which reversed his predecessors’ position that the catalytic cracked gasoline and light catalytic cracked gasoline imported by Shell were raw materials and, thus, exempt from payment of excise tax.
Over 700 business and industry leaders attended the forum.
Villar was initially non-committal since he said the case is already before the courts.
He later said BIR should not apply the ruling retroactively because this would discourage foreign investors.
"We must observe the law and be pro-active as far as Pilipinas Shell is concerned," he said.
Villanueva said government must "exercise truth and fairness in dealing with businessmen."
Gordon said if elected, he would remove the quota imposed on BIR collections.
Aquino said government should refrain from imposing more taxes on business at a time of high unemployment.
Estrada said there is no need for new taxes if only BIR is doing its job.
Estrada said that if elected, he would lower corporate taxes and see to it that revenue collectors are regularly re-shuffled because the agency is the biggest source of graft and corruption in government.
All candidates favor the lifting of the constitutional prohibition on foreign ownership of media, land and educational institutions.
Aquino said that to improve the investment and economic climate, "we must target graft and corruption that scares away investments and saps public confidence."
He said that last year alone, around P280 billion was been lost to corruption. The amount, he said, could have built 280,000 schools or 560,000 classrooms, bought 280 million sets of textbooks or train thousands of teachers. – Jay Chua
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