THE Bureau of Customs (BoC) is running after the contractor of the Philippine Arena, the world’s largest indoor arena owned by the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC or Church of Christ), for failure to settle its tax obligations on construction materials that it imported from abroad. The BoC’s Legal Service on Wednesday disclosed that it already transmitted a copy of the formal complaint against New San Jose Builders Company (San Jose) to the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), the government’s law officer and defender. Since the Finance department did not grant the exemption, San Jose was required to pay duties and taxes due on their importations. Demand letters were sent by the District Collector of the Port of Manila (PoM) to San Jose, CGAC, ISAC and PFMIC in 2015. Section 1132 of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act provides civil remedies to the BoC for the collection of duties and taxes.

Source: Manila Times April 26, 2017 11:15 UTC