7 fuel importers top 2012 taxpayers’ list

MANILA, Philippines - Only a fifth of the country’s petroleum and gasoline importers made it to the list of top taxpayers in 2012, according to the government’s latest Tax Watch advertisement.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said only seven of the 32 active petroleum and gasoline importers were part of its top 500 non-individual taxpayers for 2012.

Leading the pack was Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. which paid P543.45 million in income tax. It ranked 59th on the BIR’s top taxpayer list.

Chevron Philippines was the second highest taxpayer among oil and gas importers, with P341.44 million remitted to the BIR, putting it in 86th spot.

Petron Corp. followed with P299.3 million paid to occupy 99th place.

The four others that made it to the BIR list were Seaoil Philippines with an income tax payment of P129.995 million, Unioil Petroleum Philippines (P107.52 million), ISLA LPG (P75.34 million) and Petronas Energy Philippines (P44.35 million).

The government’s Tax Watch ad also showed that only less than one percent or 19 of the 319 steel importers belonged to the BIR’s highest taxpayer list.

These included Shell Philippines Exploration BV which paid P5.95 billion in income tax, Holcim Philippines (P1.59 billion), Quezon Power Philippines (P1.44 billion), Philex Mining Corp. (P528 million), International Container Terminal Services Inc. (P471.73 million), Mitsubishi Motors Philippines (P455.29 million), Concepcion-Carrier Air Conditioning (P304.27 million), Petron Corp. (P299.3 million), Megawide Construction (P166.68 million), San Miguel Yamamura Packaging (P156.76 million), Toledo Power Co. (P107.65 million) and San Miguel Yamamura Asia (P107.61 million).

Others that made it to the list were James Hardie Philippines (P98.34 million), Asian Shipping (P83.81 million), Atlas Copco (P80.003 million), Century Canning (P47.84 million), Regan Industrial Sales (P45.42 million), Hawaiian-Philippine Co. (P45.17 million) and Team Energy Corp. (P43.7 million).

The government has stepped up its monitoring and auditing functions, scrutinizing the income tax returns filed by the country’s corporate taxpayers.

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima earlier said that by regularly coming out with a top taxpayers’ list, the BIR is able to counter-check compliance with income tax payments.

The government also checks the top taxpayers list against separate listing of top importers, top businesses by market share and other metrics in order to detect inconsistencies in data.

Purisima said the rigorous investigation process by the BIR would lead to larger revenue collections and ultimately more fiscal space for the government’s priority projects.