BAGUIO CITY – Congressional aspirant lawyer Mauricio G. Domogan vowed to pursue the enactment of the law that would mandate companies developing and utilizing the country’s natural resources to directly remit to the host local governments their share from the national wealth tax being collected from them.
Domogan, who introduced the direct remittance measure during his incumbency as the Representative of the Lone District of Baguio City in the House in the 12, 13 and 14 Congresses, pointed out that local governments hosting the operations of companies exploiting the country’s natural resources are being deprived with the resources from their share from the national wealth tax because of the serious delays in the release of their share.
Under the pertinent provisions of Republic Act (RA) 7160 or the Local government code, local governments hosting the operation of companies developing and utilizing the country’s natural resources within their jurisdiction are entitled to a 40 percent share of the national wealth tax due to the government while the remaining 60 percent will accrue to the national coffers.
Of the 40 percent share of host local governments, 45 percent will go to the province, 35 percent will be the share of the municipality and 20 percent will be provided to the barangay. If there will be two local governments that will host the operation of the companies, then the prescribed share will be equally divided between or among the said local governments.
Domogan claimed that under the present process by which local governments get their shares from the national wealth tax, there is a serious delay that translates to the deprivation of their constituents on the delivery of basic services and implementation of high impact development projects.
Based on the process, the company will pay its corresponding taxes to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), then the BIR certifies on the amount that had been paid which certification will be submitted to the Department of Budget and management (DBM).
According to him, the DBM will in turn include the share of the national wealth tax of the host local governments to the succeeding annual budget of the national government that accounts for serious delays in the supposed release of the funds to the host communities.
Under Domogan’s proposal, the 40 percent share of the host local governments will instead be directly remitted by the companies to the local governments to avoid the unnecessary delays so that the same will be able to immediately include the said amount to their annual budgets for their share from the national wealth tax to be used to enhance the delivery of basic services and implement their desired development projects in their respective areas of jurisdiction.
Domogan pointed out that the problem with the current set up or process is when the BIR will be remised in issuing the necessary certification on the taxes that will be paid by the companies which will again translate to another delay in the release of their shares that is tantamount to depriving the people of the services due to them via the share of their local governments from the national wealth tax. By HENT