The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) should collect the P40-billion in unpaid franchise taxes of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators or POGOs and they should leave the country once they’ve paid.
Senator Risa Hontiveros made the call as she stressed that the social costs that came along with the spike of POGOs in the Philippines will always outweigh any revenue that the government may generate from them.
“We simply do not need them,” said Hontiveros, who chairs the Senate Committee on Women and Children during the Senate’s deliberation on the proposed law that seeks to tax POGOs that was taken up on Monday, May 31.
Hontiveros, who chairs the Senate women’s panel, led the year-long investigation on POGO-related prostitution and sex trafficking. She said opening up the country to POGO also worsened the corruption in the Bureau of Immigration (BI).
“Let’s not forget that the ‘pastillas’ scam in the BI started when they allowed the entry of Chinese nationals who were usually POGO workers. And even though they brought in pain and distress to the country, they failed to pay taxes properly,” she lamented.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Sen. Pia Cayetano, on Monday continued to defend Senate Bill No. 2232 or the Act Taxing POGOs and stressed the need for the government to collect taxes from the industry players.
“Although my task is simply on the taxation aspect, I do recognize that the impact of POGOs in our country, in our communities is widespread,” Cayetano stressed.
During her sponsorship of the bill, Cayetano lamented that the POGOs is an industry with a potential source of revenue for the government and the BIR could have collected more than P38-billion from the industry in 2019 alone.
The amount, she said, is a far cry from the actual collection of the BIR from the industry, which in 2020 was only at P7.18-billion, or 11.71 percent higher than the P6.42-billion collection in 2019.
She said passage of the measure into law would help spruce up the country’s coffers to fund programs that will improve people’s lives and help build back better during this COVID-19 pandemic.
“POGO offshore-based licensees claim that they are not required to register and pay taxes to the BIR since they derive income from sources not within the Philippines, this is based on the opinion of the Office of the Solicitor General,” Cayetano pointed out.
“Thus, this bill, now clarifies that all offshore gaming licensees, regardless of whether Philippine or foreign-based, are considered doing business in the Philippines, and must pay five percent gaming tax on the gross gaming revenue or receipts derived from the gaming operations,” she stressed, adding that this gaming tax would be in lieu of all taxes.