Australian mine firm tops Vizcaya taxpayers’ list

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – An Australian mining firm, which operates the Didipio gold-copper project here, has been cited for topping the Bureau of Internal Revenue 's list of taxpaying corporations in the province.

The BIR district office said the OceanaGold Philippines, Inc. (OGPI) has paid P118.8 million in taxes since last year, making it also one of the highest tax-paying companies in Cagayan Valley. 

OGPI was contracted by the national government to undertake the multibillion-peso Didipio project, which commercial operation was started in April last year following nearly two decades of exploration and construction activities.

A local subsidiary of the Melbourne-based OceanaGold Co., OGPI’s center of operation is in Barangay Didipio, a remote mountain village located along the border of this province and Quirino.

Christopher Capistrano, Didipio project’s deputy general manager for government affairs, led other firm executives in receiving a plaque of recognition from the BIR. 

The awarding ceremony, held on Feb. 20, was part of BIR’s awareness campaign dubbed “I love the Philippines, I pay my taxes right” and of the local government’s themed “I am a Novo Vizcayano, I am proud to pay my taxes.”

OGPI’s payments, which also represent excise tax and withholding tax, the BIR said, made its district revenue office here as the top collection performer in the region for 2013.

“The collection of taxes from the mining industries in Nueva Vizcaya has contributed to a 45-percent growth rate to their collection (in the province),” said lawyer Maria Isabel Utit, assistant revenue district officer.