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By Isagani P. Palma, Correspondent
GENERAL SANTOS CITY: The Bureau
of Internal Revenue is set to file estafa charges against a deposed
municipal mayor and two other high-ranking municipal officials for
failure to settle local government’s taxes in Malungon, Sarangani
Province.
“Mayor Teody M. Padernilla will
soon be summoned to the local BIR district for his failure to remit
the surcharges, interest and other compromise penalties pressed by
the tax bureau amounting to P708, 945.28 during his incumbency as
municipal mayor of Malungon town,” a BIR insider told The Manila
Times on Friday.
The insider said the bureau would
also include the filing of charges against Amanda Lanticse, the
municipal accountant, and municipal treasurer Nimfa Figueroa for
being allegedly liable in the delayed payment of taxes and the
nonremittance of government dues and penalties before the local BIR
district.
He said, if these officials will
fail to settle the tax remittances, then this will be the first
instance here in Central Mindanao that the BIR will be force to
sequester the personal belongings of a defeated mayor and two other
town officials. The BIR will reportedly confiscate properties
equivalent to the amount of the unpaid government taxes.
The local BIR office has
intensified its tax mapping and intelligence gathering operation to
ferret tax cheats not only from the local business sector but
likewise those in charge of government-run offices in a bid to help
the national tax collection bureau meet its annual revenue
collection target of P765 billion this year.
The arrears stemmed from the
penalties charged by the BIR against the local government of
Malungon due to the late filing of withholding taxes on compensation
and value-added tax from the period of March to December in 2006.
Reports said the Bureau is set to
conduct background and lifestyle check on Amada Lanticse, who was
reported to have acquired “questionable” properties and wide
farmlands during her stint as municipal accountant and acting budget
officer in the local government.
In a follow-up interview with
Noel Gonzales, the local BIR district revenue officer, he said they
have already sent several notices to the local government in the
previous months but to no avail.
“It seems that they have no
interest to settle the account until Padernilla lost the election in
the May 14 synchronized polls,” Gonzales said.
He said he has nothing to do but
follow what Section 247 of BIR’s General Provisions (Statutory
Offenses and Penalties) provides noting that “if the withholding
agent in the government or any of its agencies, political
subdivisions or instrumentalities, including government-owned and
controlled corporation fails to pay intended revenues that is due to
the government, the chief executive thereof will be personally held
responsible of it.”
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