SENATE leaders are poised to front-load plenary consideration of a bill granting tax exemptions to sellers of gold bought by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
This was confirmed by Sen. Juan Edgardo M. Angara when asked what major revenue measures are likely to be endorsed by the Ways and Means Committee for plenary consideration when Congress reconvenes regular sessions starting on January 14.
“There is one: to exempt the sale to the BSP of gold,” Angara, Ways and Means panel chairman, told the BusinessMirror on Wednesday.
This, even as the Department of Finance had agreed to reduce creditable withholding tax on gold sales to 1 percent, from 5 percent.
In signing the implementing Revenue Regulation, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III confirmed earlier that the move was intended to “encourage small-scale miners to sell back their gold produce” to the BSP.
The finance chief expects the reduced creditable withholding tax would enable gold miners to “get back a fair market price for their gold produce” from the BSP and reduce the risk of miners being “shortchanged” in the black market.
Earlier, Dominguez confirmed the DOF officials were also set to sit down with lawmakers “to institutionalize the Revenue Regulation through an appropriate amendment to the National Internal Revenue Code.” He said that the Revenue Regulation will, likewise, enable Bangko Sentral to boost its gross international reserves without spending dollars as it would be able to buy gold directly using local currency. “Unlike using pesos to buy foreign exchange to buy gold, which will affect the peso dollar rate, this flexibility will not have a direct impact on the movement of the peso against the dollar,” Dominguez explained.