Informant seeks to compel BIR to collect unpaid Meralco, First Gas taxes

MANILA, Philippines – A man who claims to be a registered tax informant is set to file a case today with the Court of Tax Appeals in Quezon City to compel the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to collect more than P100 billion in unpaid taxes from the Manila Electric Co. and First Gas Power Corp.

Danilo Lihaylihay was supposed to file his complaint yesterday but held it off after he was asked to pay more than P431 million in filing fees. “I will file my case as a pauper litigant,” he told The STAR in text message.

His lawyers Vicente Millora and Guillermo Pecache issued a joint statement denouncing the P431-million filing fee requirement.

“The huge filing fees render impossible the filing of any case on the part of any private citizen to force the government to collect taxes due it from giant companies like Meralco and FGPC,” Lihaylihay said.

In a 16-page petition for “mandamus, with a prayer for the garnishment of the assets of Meralco,” Lihaylihay alleged that the Lopez-owned power distributor failed to pay the necessary taxes of P246 per kilowatt-hour for its purchases of power from the state-owned National Power Corp. in 2002, 2003, and 2004.

He said he expects to get 25 percent of the collected taxes as reward for his effort, as mandated under Republic Act 2338 and being a “confidential informer of the state.”

In another information filed with the BIR on July 17, 2006 Lihaylihay alleged that First Gas understated its operating income tax by an average of P1.8 billion from 2001 to 2004.

First Gas, he said, also violated the internal revenue code when it entered into an agreement with Meralco that the latter would pay First Gas P11.99 billion annually corresponding to the “take or pay” volume of 12,480 GWH regardless of whether or not the contracted volume is accepted.

He said that despite the seriousness of the charges, the BIR failed or refused to investigate Meralco and First Gas, much less collect the alleged tax deficiencies.

Lihaylihay said he even reported the case to President Arroyo and later to then Commissioner Mario Buñag.

Garcia told to bare all

A civic organization has urged Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) president Winston Garcia to “fully disclose” his alleged takeover plan for Meralco to allay fears that the move “stands to favor several business interests.”

Speaking at a media forum over the weekend, Tanglaw ng Bayan expressed fears that Garcia’s plan “betrays a grand design for a takeover of the country’s most lucrative power distribution enterprise by business interests strongly identified with the Garcia clan of Cebu.”

Tanglaw spokesman Bayani Santos Jr. said Garcia’s pronouncements “gave the public a hint that he could be fronting for groups interested in the Lopez-led business.” – With Donnabelle Gatdula and Jose Rodel Clapano