ZAMBOANGA CITY – The Region 9 office here of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR 9) has formally filed a complaint before the Department of Justice (DoJ) against two firms operating in this city for allegedly defrauding the government of over P50 million in taxes.

BIR 9 Regional Director Rozil Lozares said his office formally filed a complaint against Janrem Trade Distributors, and Mingate Manufacturing Corporation before the DoJ for alleged tax evasion.

Lozares said his office was able to track down the alleged tax deficit of the two firms after he ordered a strict implementation of the bureau’s program called “Run After Tax Evaders (RATE)” in the region.

He claimed that both firms have allegedly under-valued their sales income for 2007, Value Added Tax (VAT), and withholding tax (WT) apparently amounting to over P50 million.

He said the two firms allegedly cheated payment of taxes to the Zamboanga City Revenue District Office (RDO) 93-A of over P40 million, and P10 million, respectively, in 2007.

“This is the first time in the entire region that we filed complaint at the DoJ against traders for violation of the RATE program of the bureau,” Lozares said.

“Our office has enough and strong evidence on hand to prove that they failed to pay the amount due in taxes to the government in 2007,” he added.

RDO-93-A chief Roberto Bucoy said his office has conducted strict examinations on all sales documents and found out that the two firms allegedly defraud the government of over P50 million in various forms of taxes.