Pharmally executives Mohit and Twinkle Dargani. ABS-CBN News/file
MANILA - Pharmally officials' claim of overpayment in taxes is "preposterous," Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said Monday.
Drilon earlier showed during a Senate inquiry that most of the Pharmally officers' income tax returns were not filed, unreadable, or incomplete.
Pharmally president Twinkle Dargani paid only P29,187 in taxes in 2018 and only P1,000 in 2020 while his brother Pharmally Secretary and Treasurer Mohit Dargani only paid P22,062 in 2019 and P97,241 in 2020.
"They are claiming an overpayment of taxes and therefore claims of tax refund of over P500,000 which is certainly preposterous and therefore we are asking for these documents to show they committed fraud in their filing of income tax returns," Drilon told ANC's Headstart.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue has asked until the end of the year to look over the siblings' documents, according to the senator.
The Darganis will be transferred to the Pasay City Jail over their continued failure to submit subpoenaed documents, said Sen. Richard Gordon, chair of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee which is investigating Pharmally over its alleged anomalous deals with government.
The investigation stems from a 2020 Commission on Audit report that said government awarded contracts worth billions of pesos to Pharmally which only had less than a million pesos in paid-up capital.
Drilon said opposition senators had flagged government's face mask deal with Pharmally as early as last year.
"The executive branch then, since this came from us in the opposition, was considered as political noise," he said.
The Senate can keep the Dargani siblings imprisoned until the Senate adjourns on June 30, 2022, according to Drilon. Perceived abuses by senators should be brought before the Senate ethics committee, he added.