PSC eyes P11M in  Customs remittances

The Philippine Sports Commission is all set to collect P11 million in remittances from the Bureau of Customs which under Republic Act 6847 is required to submit to the sports agency three percent of all taxes collected from the importation of sports equipment.

Commissioner Ambrosio de Luna of the PSC said the amount will be turned over this month. He was the one who initiated talks with Customs Deputy Commissioner and fellow lawyer Rey Umali under direct orders from PSC chairman Butch Ramirez.

The amount, according to De Luna, represents the BoC remittances that were not collected by the PSC from 1997 until 2001. The PSC commissioner said he is still working on the collection of remittances from 1990 until 1996.

The PSC was created in 1990 under RA 6847 and under the law should receive remittances from other government agencies and corporations like the Philippine Amusements and Gaming Corp., Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office or Philippine Racing Commission.

“The PSC is just going after what is due the agency.

And with the full cooperation of the Bureau of Customs under Commissioner Napoleon Morales, the PSC will receive the P11 million representing past remittances,” said De Luna.

The imported sports equipment does not include those that are being used by the hundreds of national athletes under the PSC, but those being brought in by groups or individuals for use of the different schools, colleges and universities or private gyms.

“The PSC missed the remittances from 1990, the year the sports agency was created, until 2001. It was only in 2002 until the present time that remittances were turned over to us on a quarterly basis,” said De Luna.

“All we needed was legal coordination with our counterparts from the customs bureau, including Deputy Commissioner Alexander Arevalo,” added De Luna who recently signed a memorandum of understanding with one of the country’s biggest tax-generating bureaus.

Part of the memorandum is the PSC’s monitoring of all BoC tax collectibles from imported sports equipment, and ways to check the misdeclaration of such equipment.

“Every sports equipment being imported and declared as otherwise means losses in taxes and losses in remittances to the PSC,” said De Luna, adding that the amount generated is expected to boost the PSC budget for grassroots development and operations.         – Abac Cordero