N. Vizcaya pushes P1.7-B tax claim from dam operator

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines   – The provincial government is working to collect P1.7-billion in tax payments from a US firm operating the Casecnan multipurpose irrigation and power project here.

Provincial treasurer Rhoda Moreno said the amount represents the arrears from the real property tax payments since 2007 of the California Energy-Casecnan Water and Energy Co. (Cal-Energy).

Constructed during the Ramos administration, the $580-million Casecnan project has been in operation for the last 14 years.

The project siphons water from the Taan and Casecnan rivers in the village of Alfonso Castañeda here, through a 30-kilometer diversion tunnel to the Pantabangan Dam in Nueva Ecija.

The water is for the irrigation needs of more than 200,000 hectares of farmland in Central Luzon and parts of western Pangasinan.

The project also generates some 100 megawatts of electricity to augment the increasing power needs of the Luzon grid.    

Moreno said the provincial government has sent a letter to the Department of Finance (DOF) for a dialogue, along with the Casecnan project owner and other stakeholders.

The DOF has the authority to compel Cal-Energy to comply with the tax payment.

The provincial government, she said, has an existing agreement with the company regarding the collection of its tax obligation.

“This will expire before the end of this year, so we wanted to pursue this,” Moreno said.

Aside from the tax obligation, some indigenous communities are also claiming a multimillion-peso share of the Casecnan operation, as some of the company’s facilities are located in their ancestral land.