|
THE Bureau of Internal Revenue wants to tap the
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in collecting excise tax from
small-scale miners on their sale of gold.
In a draft revenue regulation,
Finance Secretary Margarito B. Teves said the BIR wants to the
BSP’s participation to ensure that excise taxes are properly
collected.
“BSP, as a government owned and
controlled corporation, holds a preeminent position of having full
information relative to the amount of sales generated by these
small-scale miners in their production of gold,” the document
read.
Any sale of gold to BSP is
subject to the excise tax rate of two percent based on the actual
market value of the gross output.
Teves said prescribing such mode
of tax collection is very well within the realm of the authority of
the Department of Finance and the BIR.
Horacio C. Ramos, Mines and
Geosciences Bureau chief said small-scale miners are considered a
major dollar earner, and contributes huge amount of money to the
national economy.
In 2006, small-scale mining
produced 3.5 metric tons of gold amounting to P3 billion.
In the first six months of last
year, the country’s total gold production fell 1 percent to 18,680
kilograms from 18,949 kilograms, valued at P19.3 billion.
--Chino S. Leyco
|
