SEN. Grace Poe reprimanded the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) last Thursday for failing to provide Senators information on whether or not franchise applicants were fulfilling their responsibility with the bureau, specifically if they have been diligently paying their taxes “on time and in full.”
Poe, presiding over the hearing of the Senate Committee on Public Services Committee, aired concerns over the BIR’s lack of preparation. The agency’s unpreparedness is seen to delay the lawmakers’ action on pending franchise applications under evaluation by the committee. These applications include 16 from telecommunications companies, a dozen for broadcast franchise and the franchise renewal of Air Philippines Corp.
The Senator clarified that “before we give a franchise to a company, we have to make sure that they have no liabilities.”
“Eh kung may utang sa inyo?” Poe asked the BIR officials. [What if they owe government?]. The Senator reminded BIR officials that “this is the best way you can collect from them because they are applying for a franchise.”
At the same time, the Poe-chaired Senate panel tasked to review franchises required the attendance of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and the BIR during the hearing to vet the applicant’s performance and inform the panel on its compliance with regulations, as well as violations.
As a rule, franchise applications of those with violations of regulations of the SEC, NTC and others are put on hold until their issues are resolved, the senator clarified.
Reminding that “the Senate is about to go on a break next week,” Poe, however, assured that “as much as possible, we would like to finish our committee reports and hopefully take them up on the floor next week.”
The Senator confirmed that “invitations for the hearing were sent out three weeks ago and resource persons were provided a list of the information that the committee would need.”
At the same time, Poe aired hopes that “the BIR is taking our hearings seriously.”
“I expect more participation and respect from the BIR because this is an actual public hearing,” the senator added. “They should be able to assist the legislative because this is one of their functions.”
Poe recalled that last year, she already “called out the BIR over the absence of its ranking officials at the committee hearing on the Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer Act that the executive itself was also pushing for.”