Benguet SSM hit delay of coop registration
2 MIN READ
By KIMBERLIE NGABIT-QUITASOL
www.nordis.net
LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — Benguet Federation of Small-Scale Miners Inc. (BFSSMAI) Secretary General Leoncio Na-oy complained that the government is giving small scale miners (SSM) a hard time registering their groups into a cooperative further delaying the legalization of their operations. This after the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) stopped the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) from registering small-scale mining cooperatives last year.
Na-oy said President Benigno Aquino III’s Executive Order 79 required SSMs to form cooperatives before applying for a Minahang Bayan. He added that EO 79 also prescribed that SSMs can only mine in declared Minahang Bayan zones.
“The application for a Minahang Bayan is a very tedious process itself. The BIR memorandum to the CDA made it worse because we have to be accredited as a cooperative before we could apply for a Minahang Bayan,” he said.
Na-oy shared that their application for accreditation with the CDA amending their earlier by laws to qualify as a multipurpose cooperative is still pending at the central office but they are already operating as one. “I do not know how the CDA would categorize us now. I believe we submitted all the necessary requirements already. It is now their call,” he said.
BFSSMI President Lomino Kaniteng said no Minahang Bayan zone had been approved more than a year after the President issued EO 79. He said there are around 200,000 miners in the province now facing a mining ban.
CDA Officer-in-charge Atty. Franco Bawang said they already endorsed the accreditation of Na-oy’s group to the central office. He explained that BIR issued a memorandum to the CDA advising them not to accredit SSM cooperatives as these groups might be used as “tax shields” and the collection of taxes from the small scale mining industry.
Bawang said the BIR and the CDA agreed to relax this ban toward the end of 2012, but the new process requires SSM cooperatives to process their applications at Metro Manila office.
Bawang admitted that all cooperatives are covered by the Cooperative Code of the Philippines (Republic Act No. 6938) that gives tax exceptions. Section 62 of RA 6938 states that “cooperatives with accumulated reserves and undivided net savings of not more than P10 Million shall be exempt from all national, city, provincial, municipal or barangay taxes of whatever name and nature.”
He, however, pointed out that the BIR is the agency that can issue tax exceptions. # nordis.net
