Small scale miners pay P31 million excise tax

By Dexter A. See

BAGUIO CITY February 24 – The Cordillera office of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said small scale miners in the different parts of the region were able to pay to the coffers of the government more than P31 million in excise tax last year representing the sale of gold and other minerals to the BangkoSentralngPilipinas (BSP).

Lawyer Eduardo Bajador, BIR-CAR regional director, said the agency’s collection of excise tax from the small scale miners last year is at least 728 percent higher compared to the P3.5 million earlier projected by the BIR which will be collected from the lucrative gold trade.

“We expect our small scale miners to contribute more in terms of excuse tax this year which will be a big boost to our sustained efforts to generate more local revenues. We hope that our central office will not reclassify our small scale miners as large scale taxpayers which will greatly affect our possible sources of revenues,” Bajador said, noting that BIR-Car fell short of its tax collection goal by 2.7 percent.

Records show that BIR-CAR was able to collect P3.011 billion in taxes last year which is around P67 million lesser compared to the agency’s P3.079 billion tax collection goal for the said period.

According to Bajador, BIR-CAR was given a tax collection goal of P3.4 billion which he considers to be “achievable with the cooperation of taxpayers.”

“Small scale mining is one of the sectors which we are intending to generate more taxes in order for us to meet our tax collection goal this year,” Bajador added, citing that BIR-CAR already made previous consultations with the Benguet Federation of Small Scale Miners to iron out the mode of paying their taxes to the government.

The BIR-CAR is currently gathering details in relation to the number of BSP-accredited gold traders to ensure that the lucrative gold trade will be properly monitored so that the small scale miners will be able to pay the right excise tax to the coffers.

Engr. Lumino Caniteng, president of the Benguet Federation of Small Scale Miners, said there around 25,000 small scale miners distributed in the different mineral-rich areas in Benguet, particularly Itogon, Tuba, Mankayan, Bakun, Kabayan, Atok and Kapangan.

However, he admitted that out of the 64 associations of small scale miners, only 4 associations are accredited by the provincial mining regulatory board while the other unregulated associations are having problems on the consent of the mining companies who have rights over their working areas and private individuals who have titles to the mine sites.

Aside from intensifying the collection of taxes in identified potential sectors in the region, Bajador said the agency will also enhance its tax mapping operations regionwide so that those engaged in the underground economy will be constrained to pay their taxes due the government to help generate sufficient funds which will be used to implement development projects and enhance the delivery of basic services to the people.

He believes in the patriotism of Cordillerans in religiously paying their taxes since during his over a year of being assigned in the region, they did not have difficulty in convincing individuals and corporations to pay their taxes as per the results of their massive tax mapping operations.