Baguio Congressman Mark Go has warned the House of Representatives of billions of pesos in tax revenue loss if they will still refuse to give ABS-CBN a new franchise.
During the congressional hearing on the ABS-CBN franchise Thursday, July 2, Go said ABS-CBN has been contributing billions in taxes to the government. And those amounts will be gone if ever the media company will not be given their new franchise.
“If and when Congress does not approve ABS-CBN franchise, this is what we’re gonna lose,” Go said.
Go urged the congress to consider giving ABS-CBN the franchise it needs to operate since the country more than ever needs businesses to stimulate the economy especially that we are in a pandemic.
“What we would like to do is to stimulate the economy and one way of stimulating it is by ensuring that those who are in the country doing business now, should continue, even strengthen their business,” Go said.
ABS-CBN tax issues were the topic of the hearing.
Although the BIR has already said that ABS-CBN was consistently issued tax clearance for the past years, anti-ABS-CBN congressman Pidi Barzaga said it doesn’t fully clear ABS-CBN of any fraud or violation.
“Kahit may tax clearance, it does not bar the government to conduct an investigation in the event that there will be fraud for the corporation in the year when the tax clearance was issued,” Barzaga said.
ABS-CBN had been a consistent top taxpayer of the country according to BIR.
According to Simplicio Cabantac Jr, head of Large Tax Payers Audit Division 3 of the BIR, ABS-CBN has ranked 65th among the top corporate taxpayers in the Philippines. In 2017, the company was ranked 275th and 339th in 2018.
