By Mortz C. Ortigoza
Were Custom Deputy Commissioner Arturo Lachica and
Bureau of Internal Revenue’s Revenue District Office-chief Jonas Amora of
Revenue District Office 8 in Makati City, corrupt thus they died in an ambushed
recently?
As a regular media guy that covered the agency for several years, here’s how the lowly Examiners (young tax men and women who are Certified Public Accountant), their Supervisors, Assistant Revenue District Office (RDO) chief, RDO-Chief, Assistant Regional Director, Director, and Commissioners perpetuate corruption that made even the wet behind the ears Examiners become moneyed overnight.
A taxpayer who was assessed by the Examiner through the
Letter of Authority (LA) to pay the government three million pesos a year
haggles with the visiting Examiner.
Examiner informs his or her Supervisor and the
RDO-Chief about the discount the businessman wanted to pay.
If the RDO-chief says he pays one million pesos to the bank for the government to collect and one million for the “boys”, it means the other one million pesos would be divided by those tax officials I mentioned recently.
If the RDO-chief says he pays one million pesos to the bank for the government to collect and one million for the “boys”, it means the other one million pesos would be divided by those tax officials I mentioned recently.
The loser in this transaction is the Filipino people
who should benefit through social services on the three million pesos tax the
businessman should be paying the government.
But the Republic of the Philippines was shortchanged
by two million pesos because the taxpayer pays only one million to the coffer
while one million pesos was divided by the thieves there while the businessman
was laughing after he disadvantaged the State by one million pesos.
These three million pesos example happened every day
in the country until the Duterte Administration suspended the L.A because it was a tool used not to perpetuate the economic benefits of taxation but to fatten
the pockets of these officials.
But despite the suspension of the L.A, many officials
still enrich themselves as those transactions with previous taxpayers who ran
around the old L.A still give them monies.
“In my RDO, everybody’s happy here unlike in other
RDOs where the chief there shortchange his or her subordinates on the division
of the loot,” a proud RDO-chief told media men who befriended him.
Son of a gun, so there are still cheaters even among
the thieves.
(You can read my selected columns at
http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can
send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment