BIR raises nearly P1B from 'Oplan Kandado'; here's what the program is all about

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has padlocked 207 businesses nationwide during the first five months of the year for various tax offenses under its "Oplan Kandado" program.

This effort by the agency involves temporarily shutting down the businesses by virtue of their tax violations.

BIR Deputy Commissioner for Operations Arnel SD. Guballa said many of these commercial establishments were allowed to resume operations after settling their deficiency tax assessment totalling to more than P995 million.

Most of the tax violations had to do with the non-issuance of receipts and invoices and non-registration.

Guballa said that for May alone, 36 such fiirms were close. They were subsequently reopened after paying more than P37 million in back taxes.

Likewise, the revenue official said the bureau filed tax evasion complaints against 26 corporate and individual taxpayers for refusal to settle tax debts amounting to P202 million.

From January to May, he said eight criminal cases worth more than P1 billion were submitted before the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) for resolution.