BIR in Cagayan de Oro padlocks business firms

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – At least four (4) commercial establishments in Northern Mindanao have been ordered “closed” and “padlocked” on July 23, this year, by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) under its “Oplan Kandado” campaign.

Oplan Kandado is an initiative of the BIR to strengthen its imposition of prescribed sanctions for non-compliance with such essential requirements as the issuance of receipts, filing of returns, declaration of taxable transactions, taxpayer registration and paying the correct amount of taxes, as mandated by the norms/standards of their particular industry or line of business.

The closure order came from Atty. Sixto S. Esquivas IV, Commissioner of Internal Revenue (CIR), for the establishments’ violation of the Value Added Tax (VAT) Law pursuant to Section 115 of the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC), as amended.

Atty. D. Paulo D. Vidanes, Chief of Staff of Commissioner Esquivas, said the NIRC empowers the CIR to suspend the business operations and temporarily close the business establishment of any person for any of the following violations.

In the case of a VAT-registered person, failure to issue receipts or invoices, failure to file a VAT return as required under Sec. 114 of the NIRC or understatement of taxable sales or receipts by 30% or more of his correct taxable sales or receipts for the taxable quarter.

Vidanes said the temporary closure will be for the duration of not less than five (5) days and will be lifted only upon compliance with whatever requirements the CIR has prescribed in the order.

“We would like to assure the public, however, that the closure order was issued only after due process was conducted utilizing covert, overt and short duration surveillance of tax compliance checks participated in by all the investigating offices of the BIR,” he said.

Simultaneous with the closure of the main establishment and two (2) branches at the Cogon Market Area in Cagayan de Oro City (CDO) owned by Hong Jek Yangze, a.k.a. Antonio Lim, its other branch in Iligan City, was also padlocked.

The closure proceedings went on smoothly after the order was received by Lim’s wife at their main store who then told all the members of their sales staff to turn the power off, unplug all the electric appliances and leave all the goods inside before going out “empty handed.”

Vidanes, who came to the city to enforce the order, was accompanied by Regional Director Esmeralda M. Tabule of BIR Revenue Region 16, Revenue District Officer Noel Gonzales of RDO 98 in CDO and members of the BIR investigating teams in the region. (Rutchie Cabahug-Aguhob)

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