Gov't should go after non-paying GOCCs the way it does small businesses, says Cong Daza

Northern Samar 1st district Rep. Paul Daza (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

Northern Samar 1st district Rep. Paul Daza has asked the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Bureau of Treasury to look into the alleged non-remittance of some P2 billion in dividends by certain government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCC). 

Daza, the House senior deputy minority leader, made this call Thursday, Aug. 10 during the Committee on Appropriations' briefing with the Development and Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) on the P5.678-trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2024. 

In his interpellation of the DBCC, Daza noted that the BIR has been "very strict" as they have clamped down and filed cases against more than 200 businesses. 

"I think most of us under the raid program, can’t really argue with that but my personal concern is, I’ve been told that there are GOCCs that have not been remitting dividends to the national government as required by law," he said, before asking, "Are you also filing cases against them?" 

Daza cited a 2022 Commission on Audit (COA) report, which indicated that a total of 18 GOCCs failed to remit to the government their dividends amounting to P2 billion. 

“There’s 18 GOCCs that owe the government, with penalties, P2 billion. All I’m pointing out is if you’re going against small tax players, entrepreneurs, small businesses, you’re filing cases. Are you doing the same thing to people in government who owe you money, who owe the government money?” asked the veteran congressman. 

National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon acknowledged that based on law, these GOCCs should pay. "The 50 percent of their net income should be remitted to the national government," she said. 

"But in some cases, they would be asking for waivers or partial remittance of dividends," De Leon told Daza. 

"So, there will be an evaluation to be conducted by our corporate affairs group to see whether this is justifiable in terms of the waivers of the dividends or how much more dividend that they would have to be remitting to the national government. 

"But in the case of the waivers, they would also go all the way up to the Office of the President to get the approval," she explained.