THE Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (PH-EITI) project of the Philippines, a government-initiated resources advocacy group, has clarified that mining and oil and gas companies contributed a total of P52.7 billion in taxes and other revenues to the government in 2012.
It was earlier reported by EITI Philippines that the total contributions of the participating mining and oil and gas companies amounted only to P35.26 billion, but stakeholders raised some corrections on the figures, citing a total of P17 billion in unaccounted remittances to the Department of Energy (DOE) representing the government’s share in the oil and gas concessions.
The figure of P17 billion was not accounted for in the computation of the total contributions of the industry because the independent administrator of EITI thought it was a repeat declaration by the mining companies, such that the P17 billion was reported both to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the DOE.
“The adjusted figures come after further scrutiny by PH-EITI’s multistakeholder group of the accounting policies of both the BIR and the DOE. Up until a procedural change in 2012, oil and gas corporations engaged in petroleum and natural-gas extraction remitted corporate income tax as part of government share to the DOE,” the PH-EITI said in a statement.
“As such, an amount of P17 billion was initially thought of as a repeat declaration. A subsequent trace of the amount by the DOE and PH-EITI’s independent administrator, Isla Lipana & Co., proved that the amount was not a matter of double-counting, but was, in fact, an actual and separate BIR payment from oil and gas companies,” the group added.
The Philippine Petroleum Association of the Upstream Industry (Oil & Gas) Inc. (PAP) welcomed the corrections. “It is an important part of our thrust for transparency that the correct data on the revenues of the government from the upstream oil and gas industry be disseminated to the public at the soonest possible time. We also hope this will avert more inconsistencies about information released to other government branches, such as the Senate, Congress and, of course, the DOE and the BIR,”PAP President and Shell Philippines Exploration BV Managing Director Sebastian Quinones Jr. said.
PH-EITI focal person and Finance Assistant Secretary Ma. Teresa Habitan said that these adjustments in the total contributions of the mining industry to the government are the reasons EITI is important.
“I view this as part of our learning curve, and highlights the best reason we need EITI in the country. We get a lot of data from all sources, but unless this is properly processed and compiled, it can often lead to a lot of confusion and unintentional misimpressions,” Habitan said.