NPC Counters Allegations by IND Regarding NCC Taxes

It is the nature of the beast that when election time comes around the frenzy of propaganda to promote each candidate and to annihilate their opponent intensifies. Sison’s electoral atmosphere is no different. Voting time is less than a week away and rumors, allegations, and innuendos are rampant. One of the biggest target during election time, as you may have gleaned from the number of previous posts regarding this matter, is the presence of the biggest company in Sison, the Northern Cement Corporation (NCC). Congressman Mark O. Cojuangco has addressed these questions here on Sagunto Star with these posts:
1. NCC’s Tax Obligations to Sison
2. Additional taxes paid by NCC

With just a week away before voting time, paper is literally flying off the presses as propaganda is distributed to the masses to discredit each candidate or party. One that evoked another response from the NPC camp is this documents that alleges that NCC does not pay enough taxes based on the amount of profit it makes. See the allegations below:

This document accuses NCC of underpaying its tax obligations by Php 34 Million!

For those who have access to the internet and were able to read the congressman’s previous explanations and have some understanding of tax laws, his explanations were plausible. But for the many others in Sison who may be swayed by propaganda designed to incite fear, doubt and hate; and who do not have the benefit of searching for facts; allegations such as the one above can be damning.

To counter these allegations, the NPC camp has released it’s own document for distribution, explaining the tax ordinances, in the same manner that the congressman has done here on Sagunto Star. The document is in Ilocano in order to include everyone who may not be as conversant in English. It is available here for you to download:
On Allegations of NCC Underpaying Taxes

Here are some bullet points from the rebuttal which directly addresses the alleged amounts quoted on the document being circulated by the opposing camp:
NCC produces 8M bags/month which equates to 96M bags of cement per year.
According to the reply (forgive my translation from the Ilocano version – correct me if I interpreted wrongly): if it is true that NCC produces 8 million bags of cement per month, that would mean that 266,666.67 bags of cement are produced from the plant daily. “THERE IS NOT A CEMENT FACTORY IN THE PHILIPPINES THAT CAN PRODUCE THAT MUCH CEMENT MONTHLY AND NCC IS NOT EVEN THE LARGEST MANUFACTURER OF CEMENT!”

Some facts to consider if 8 million bags are indeed produced monthly:

• Trailer trucks used to haul cement can hold 1,000 bags of cement per load (some trucks can only carry 600-800 bags per load)
• To haul 266,666.67 bags of cement daily, 267 trucks would have to pass through the plant daily
• For almost 300 trucks to come in and out of the plant during its 16 hours of operation daily, it would mean a daily parade of trucks from the plant to the main highway all day and into the night!

Have the neighboring communities of Paldit, Labayug, Inmalog, and Calunetan noticed these activities?

As proof, the NCC’s actual analysis of sales was shared in the rebuttal document, copied from the Treasurer’s Office in Sison:

NORTHERN CEMENT CORPORATION

Analysis of Sales

For the calendar year ended December 2009

Note: Iti bulan ti Disyembre adu ti mapaglakoan kumpara iti bulan ti Oktubre. (55% laeng ti bulan ti Disyembre)Manipud iti bulan ti Hunyo agingga iti Oktubre ket nakapuy iti birok ti planta.

NORTHERN CEMENT CORPORATION

LOCAL GRADUATED BUSINESS TAX

For calendar year ended December 2009

Again, to view the whole rebuttal in its entirety, download the PDF file here: On Allegations of NCC Underpaying Taxes

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1 Comment

1. Ophelia says:

   May 11, 2010 at 4:02 pm

   Well, this has been one of the most interesting and productive elections…naparuar ti sungbat in English AND Ilokano. No haan nga maawatan ti tao ti explanation a ket anya ngarud…
   Great rebuttal! I appreciate the info.

   Reply