P82-billion Chingkoe tax scam exposed

A Quezon City congressman exposed yesterday an "P82-billion tax payment scam" which he said was a continuation of the tax fraud allegedly perpetrated by the Chingkoe group of textile companies, from which the government is still trying to recover P2.5 billion.

In a privilege speech, Rep. Matias Defensor said the government failed to learn its lesson after uncovering a fake tax credit certificate irregularity in the late 1990s allegedly involving 12 companies owned by spouses Faustino and Gloria Chingkoe.

"As if thumbing their noses at government, the syndicate responsible for running this scam involving fraudulent tax credit certificates has continued to operate and has mutated into a more insidious cancer consuming our government from within," he said.

He added that the syndicate continues to rob the treasury of billions until today.

Defensor revealed that when Antonio Bernardo was still Customs commissioner, the latter ordered a post audit of all imported goods.

Some 200 companies "have been discovered to have benefited from a tax payment scam that went beyond the use of fraudulent issued tax credit certificates," he told his colleagues.

"These companies are estimated to have gotten away with a total of P41 billion in taxes from 1995 to the present for the Bureau of Customs alone. It is reasonable to assume that an equivalent amount in a similar type of revenue leakage is happening at the Bureau of Internal Revenue, or a total of P82 billion," he said.

He said besides using fake tax credit certificates, companies involved in the scam recycle genuine tax certificates, a practice that revenue agencies find hard to monitor.

They also manufacture certificates with authentic tax certificate numbers, he said. — Jess Diaz