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The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) questions the legality of the
Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) regulation directing the central
bank to collect excise tax on the gold it buys from small-scale
miners.
Diwa Guinigundo, BSP deputy governor, said only
Congress could require BSP to collect gold taxes, not BIR.
“We are not against the BIR regulation, but
only the legality and its possible impact on our gold-buying
activity,” Guinigundo told reporters.
To further boost revenue collections from the
mining sector, the BIR recently issued a directive defining the
duties and obligations of the holder of a small-scale mining
contract and assigning the BSP as agent for the collection of the
2-percent excise tax on sale of gold.
Small-scale gold miners pertain to any
single-unit mining having an annual production of not more than
50,000 metric tons of ore. Currently, they sell the gold they
produced to the BSP and are strictly required to pay a 2-percent
excise tax in addition to royalties on the revenues they generate.
-- Maricel E. Burgonio
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