THE ENERGY Regulatory Commission (ERC) said on Tuesday that it has remitted more than half of its collected taxes to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) early this year, updating a 2022 report by state auditors.
ERC Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer Monalisa C. Dimalanta said that out of the 18.79 million cited in the Commission on Audit (CoA) report, P11.49 million worth of taxes withheld as of December last year have already been remitted to the BIR in January 2023.
“This amount was yet to be remitted to the BIR as of the cut-off date of the said CoA audit report,” Ms. Dimalanta said in an e-mail.
She said that an amount of P180,461.63 remained unremitted “since this was assessed as not forming part of the amount due to BIR.”
Ms. Dimalanta added that the balance of P6.22 million worth of taxes withheld in prior years have been “confirmed as previously remitted to the BIR” after further review.
She said the ERC’s remaining unreconciled unremitted amount to the BIR stood at P885,893.53, coming from taxes from payments to various suppliers contracted in previous years but have incomplete supporting documents as well as unclaimed salaries of resigned, retired, or newly-hired ERC employees as of January this year.
ERC said it can only remit the remaining due taxes once corresponding transactions are complete.
She noted that the commission is still reconciling balances in the audit report and will submit its final analysis to CoA by June 30.
In its 2022 audit report made available on June 8, 2023, CoA said the ERC had a remaining balance of P18.79 million of unremitted withheld taxes from the current year and prior years as of late last year. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz