January 14, 2016
Butch Fernandez (Business Mirror)|http://goo.gl/6wqoQf
Acting on fears aired by sugar millers that Senate Bill (SB) 2987 exempting raw sugar and raw cane sugar from the value-added tax (VAT) could be open to “misinterpretations” by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and still lead to VAT imposition on these products, Sen. Sergio R. Osmeña III assured their concerns would be tackled by senators in a meeting with BIR officials next week.
“We will work that out on Monday,” Osmeña told the BusinessMirror. Osmeña confirmed that the senators will tweak the pertinent provisions of the “no VAT on sugar” bill to prevent misinterpretations by the BIR, as feared by sugar millers. The BusinessMirror reported the concerns of the sugar millers on SB 2987 on Thursday.
“Yes, we will reword [the bill’s provisions] with the assistance of the BIR,” Osmeña added. Local millers earlier sought lawmakers to help ensure that the definition of raw sugar and raw cane sugar would not be misinterpreted by the BIR and result in reimposition of VAT on exempted products. Francisco D. Varua, president of Philippine Sugar Millers Association, said the technical definition of raw sugar and raw cane sugar, as worded in the bill, could result in VAT impositions.
“The definition of the Senate version is that raw sugar has a polarity of 99.5 degrees and below,” Varua said, noting that it also came up with another statement that “raw sugar is based on simple process. That is correct, too; but that could lead to another misinterpretation later on the part of BIR.”