March 18, 2015
Sun Star by Teresa Ellera | http://goo.gl/vvdwhW
NEGROS Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. advised sugar planters to bring their tax issues before the Supreme Court.
The governor's call came after the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) issued a directive imposing an advance Value Added Tax on raw and refined sugar beginning April 1.
Small planters had been complaining about Revenue Regulation 11-2014 that imposed a one percent withholding tax on raw sugar, including molasses, starting last January.
"The sugar planters should go to court to resolve the matter. The BIR should go after those big businesses who evade taxes rather than after the small planters," Marañon said.
The sugar planters in the province claim that a temporary restraining order issued by the Cadiz Regional Trial Court against the Expanded VAT on raw sugar is still in effect.
"That is already too much. Majority of the planters now are considered small planters while only very big planters are left," the governor said.
Earlier, the Visayan Bloc in the House of Representatives also joined the opposition to Revenue Regulation 11-2014.
Representative Stephen Paduano of Abang Lingkod party-list said that during the Visayan Bloc meeting last March 3, majority of the members said they are against the regulation.
The imposition of the tax starting blocked the release and buying of sugar at the mills.
Jose Ric Cabrera of the Legal Department of BIR Revenue Region 12 in Bacolod City said the BIR is just following the law, and the small planters in the province should lobby for its repeal in Congress.
Marañon, along with small sugarcane planters and the Philippine Sugar Alliance, had also asked the BIR to suspend the implementation of the one percent withholding tax until the next milling season.