Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said there’s merit to the proposal from the Bureau of Intvernal Revenue (BIR) to soften its stance on the gold tax as BSP has joined the clamor for a review of the 7-percent tax on gold sales.
Believing that the smuggling of the precious metal out of the country could become even more rampant if the tax issue remained unresolved, the BSP is proposing to adjust the method of computing the taxes on gold sales as against the call of legislators for the removal of the gold tax
Guinigundo added that congress and BIR would have to work out a practical, acceptable, realistic base rather than the gross amount of gold on which to apply the tax rates.
The BSP is authorized to buy gold mined within the country where proceeds are charged a 5-percent creditable withholding tax and a 2-percent excise tax computed based on the gross amount of gold sales
Gold from mining sites is sold from one trader to another. The last trader nearest to one of the BSP’s gold-buying sites and the final seller of the gold to the BSP is the one charged by the BIR with the taxes totaling 7 percent. Currently there are BIR offices in all of the five gold-buying sites of the BSP namely, Baguio City, Quezon City, Naga City, Davao City and Zamboanga City.
The Mine and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) for its part said all the government had to do was to give a little encouragement to small-scale miners and tighten up against the illegal mining of the precious metal. MGB director Leo Jasareno said BSP had started meeting with small-scale miners to urge them to sell their gold to the government.
