Purisima urges business sector to pay right taxes

MANILA, Philippines - The economic team of President Aquino III led by Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima is urging businessmen to pay their taxes correctly while assuring them that tax revenues paid will be used wisely and efficiently.

Purisima said the Aquino administration is batting for a moderate deficit while providing the resources to invest in key infrastructure, social services and other spending priorities  by aggressive tax collection efforts, tight expenditures discipline and Public Private Partnerships as driver of growth.

“The government recognizes the huge leakage in tax collection, the government only collected 13 percent of the total tax collectible in the country,” Purisima said during the Regional Economic Manager’s briefing and dialogue with President Aquino the other day.

Purisima  also asked the business sector to work with the government in identifying the giant tax evaders saying, “ they may even our neighbors, compadres.”

“The wastage of government funds is so high. We have to reduce tax evasion and fight smuggling. There is no quick-fix solution and we need your help,” Purisima said to the different business leaders from Cebu, Bohol, Negros and Siquijor.

Aside from  Purisima, other members of the economic team are NEDA chief Cayetano Paderanga Jr., Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco Jr., Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo and Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras.

Paderanga outlined the Aquino administration’s  agenda to achieve inclusive growth, create employment opportunities and reduce poverty as well as the PPP Infrastructure Projects and  the Projects Ready for 2011.

As for the power industry, Almendras said that Cebu’s power situation is a lot better than the rest of the country but said energy cost cannot be reduced.

Almendras said with the growth of demand for more power, there is a need to build more power plants to boost the generation capacity.

He suggested that people stop buying second hand television sets and switch to LCD as the latter consumes less electricity.

Domingo said that in terms of competitiveness, the Philippines has a lot of catching up to do.

But with the implementation of the Philippine Business Registry, he said a fully secured national business registry database for easier processing of business information, this would create a “hassle-free” processing of business permits and a come on for potential investors.

Domingo added that under the Upgrading of the Business Name Registration System, this would simplifiy application form from eight pages to one page, reduced information fields from 36 to six and issuance of business name registration within 15 minutes instead of one week.

Domingo added that 2010 is the year of milestones in enhancing the business environment and improving competitiveness. – With Ehda Dagooc