BIR, AMLC asked to look into Feshan violations in fertilizer scam

Sen. Richard Gordon called on the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) yesterday to investigate the possible liability of fertilizer supplier Feshan Philippines Inc. when it got involved in the P728-million fertilizer fund scam.

Gordon, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, said that the BIR and AMLC should already be taking necessary actions against Feshan executives who have revealed alleged anomalies to the panel during the recent public hearings.

“The executives of Feshan fumbled, spilled the beans, and virtually owned up to evading taxes and money laundering,” Gordon said.

“Tax amnesty was used to cover up the fruits of the crime. The BIR should now look into that because that’s evidence. What was revealed in the recent hearing is evidence that tax amnesty was used to cover up what was stolen from the government,” he added.

Gordon said that during the Dec. 21 hearing of the committee, Feshan president Julie Gregorio confessed that she allowed Feshan to enter around P105 million into its accounting books but had only sold approximately P50 million worth of fertilizers to the government.

Gregorio also bared that Marites Aytona, the alleged “packager” of proposals for the project, had advised her to apply for tax amnesty so that Feshan would not pay any tax on the income it did not earn but which was entered into the books.

Gordon said that Gregorio’s testimony exposed the liability of the executives of Feshan, which was the biggest supplier in the project.

“Feshan had to show that they were paid P105 million for the fertilizer project. They also availed of the tax amnesty so that they will not be liable for taxes anymore. And yet they paid only P500,000, which is not even 10 percent or five percent of the amount. So that is all illegal,” he said.

Gordon said the total tax due from Feshan amounts to P23,228,800. This is computed from the total amount paid by the government which is P105,000,000 less the total landed cost of P32,410,000 to get the gross profit of P72,590,000. A tax rate of 35 percent is applied to the gross profit to arrive at the total tax due of P23,228,800.

Gordon said even if Feshan availed of a tax amnesty, which was at least five or 10 percent of the gross profit, the P500,000 amount they paid was far too low.