“Only 1% of businessmen honestly pay taxes,” says BIR 16 chief

By JOEL ESCOL

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – After a long period of silence from alleged issues raised by some businessmen of the city, Bureau of Internal Revenue 16 regional director Mustapha Gandarosa fights back and answered several accusations.

Over a local television station Gandarosa said the Cagayan de Oro businessmen were only surprised with their massive tax campaign but he has nothing to do with it since he is only following orders from his superiors in Manila. He also confirmed that only 1 percent of the businessmen and local taxpayers under his jurisdiction honestly pay taxes.

“I’ve been serving the BIR for more than 35 years and I can say that only 1 taxpayer out of 100 pays taxes honestly,” the BIR regional director said.

He said there are many businessmen in the region who are mis-declaring their taxes to mislead the government of the real taxes which should been properly remitted.

“I have known one businessman which only declare a daily sales of P3,000.00 but when I visited his food service business one of the menus they serve already costs P1,000 per serving,” Gandarosa lamented.

He also alleged there is one big Cagayan de Oro businessman in the city whose monthly sales would reach to an estimated amount of 105 million but only declares 38 million based on their surveillance operations. Gandarosa did not name the businessman but he added there are many of them doing these so-called mis-declarations of taxes.

He appealed to businessmen to help the government especially that the country is now facing economic crisis, instead of evading to pay honestly their taxes.

In a separate interview with local reporters in Cagayan de Oro, Gandarosa also challenged businessmen to file charges against erring BIR personnel if they have strong evidence.

“We are only doing our part to help the government collect more taxes so that it can generate more projects for the people. If they think that some of my revenue examiners are doing something wrong I challenged them to file charges in court,” the BIR regional director said.

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