By Victoria “NIKE” De Dios
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collected a total of P582.5 million in taxes from January to November this year from 196 commercial establishments that were padlocked earlier for failing to either register or pay the correct amount of taxes.
BIR Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa said the bureau collected an additional P34.5 million in taxes in the last quarter from another 18 commercial establishments it padlocked under Oplan Kandado program.
Thus, from the previous amount of P547.9 million collected under this program from 178 establishments that were closed down in the first nine months of 2020, the total amount has increased to P582.5 million as of November this year.
In a report to Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Carlos Dominguez III at a recent DOF executive committee (Execom) meeting, Guballa also said  103 complaints involving an estimated P4.96 billion in tax liabilities that the bureau has filed before the Department of Justice (DOJ)  are now under preliminary investigation. Â
Guballa said the operations conducted against the 196 padlocked establishments were pursuant to Revenue Memorandum Order (RMO) No. 3-2009, otherwise known as the Oplan Kandado Program.
Last year, the BIR collected a total of P1.92 billion under its Oplan Kandado program as a result of the temporary closure of 743 establishments for various violations of the National Internal Revenue Code.
BIR’s performance under the Oplan Kandado program in 2019 was a 218.88-percent improvement over its 233 closures of establishments reported in 2018 and a 140.76-percent increase in collections amounting to P799.47 million during that year.