Authorities Face Problems In Tax Collections From Tuna Cannersff

The Philippine Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) district office in General Santos failed to achieve its collection goal for 2007, with the deficit blamed on the remittances elsewhere of several big businesses operating in the city. 

Noel Gonzales, chief of the district office here whose jurisdiction also spans Sarangani province, said that tax collections for the full year 2007 reached P921.2 million, 5 percent or P50 million short of the P971.3-million target. 

Last year’s actual collection however was up 12 percent from the P824.4 million collected in 2006. 

In September 2007, the district revenue office here wrote a letter asking four major players to transfer their principal offices here in a bid to increase tax collections. 

”Because they are operating in the city, they have the social responsibility to remit their taxes here,” he said in reference to the tuna companies and other big operators in the service and entertainment industries. 

The tuna companies remitting their tax duties in Metro Manila are General Tuna Corp., Ocean Canning Corp., Alliance Tuna International, Inc., and Seatrade Canning Corp. 

Only Alliance Tuna, which has its main headquarters in Pasig City, responded to the letter of Gonzales, turning down his request. 

Grace S. Dogillo, Alliance Tuna vice president for finance, said that since they are a publicly-listed firm, “it is critical that we have easy access to all facilities that would enable us to comply with the stringent requirements not only of the Securities and Exchange Commission but also of the Philippine Stock Exchange.”

”Any amendment of our by-laws will need two-thirds approval not only from the major stockholders of the company but also the investing public as well,” Dogillo added. 

She also cited that major offices like that of the company’s chair, president, treasurer, chief operating officer, finance and administration, purchasing, legal and selling and marketing are located in Pasig City. 

Another reason Gonzales gave for the failure to achieve the tax goal last year was the adjustment in the local power sector's value added tax. 

”After some auditing, we just collected from the local power distributor some P10 million in 2007, a difference of around P20 million from the previous year's P38 million,” he added. 

Major taxes imposed by the revenue bureau include income, excise, value-added tax and percentage, with Gonzales saying that local tax goal for 2008 is still being worked out by the national office. 

This city has about 6,000 registered businesses, according to data from the City Licensing and Permit Division. 

The economy of this city has flourished due to the presence of the tuna industry, where six of the eight tuna canneries in the country are located. 

Dubbed as the “Tuna Capital of the Philippines,” the industry provides employment to tens of thousands of individuals here. 

Export receipts of canned tuna products for the first eight months to August 2007 reached $111 million, with the European Union, United States, and Japan as major markets, data from the Department of Trade and Industry-Central Mindanao showed. 

The canned tuna sector was able to ship 52 million kilograms to 22 other foreign markets to achieve the figure during the period, it added. 

For the full year of 2006, canned tuna products generated export sales of at least $172 million at a volume of 93.1 million kilos, a comparative report from the regional Trade department office said.