QUITO -(Dow Jones)- Eight major Ecuadorean conglomerates have failed to pay the country's Internal Revenue Service, or SRI, a combined $152 million in taxes, the agency's director told Dow Jones Newswires Thursday.
Carlos Marx Carrasco said the SRI found the discrepancies in income taxes filed for 2005 and 2006. Among the conglomerates implicated are Grupo Noboa, controlled by former presidential candidate and banana magnate Alvaro Noboa; the Grupo Wong, which also has firms in the banana business; and Grupo Eljuri, which has retail stores.
The SRI has been auditing Ecuador's 17 main conglomerates since August. The agency is also investigating tax returns of foreign oil companies and wireless providers operating in the Andean country.
In the wireless sector, the investigation is focusing on Porta Celular, a subsidiary of Mexico's America Movil; Movistar, a unit of Spain's Telefonica; and state-run Alegro PCS.
In the oil sector, all foreign and state-controlled companies are being investigated. Among units of foreign oil companies operating in Ecuador are Brazil's Petroleo Brasileiro, Spanish-Argentine Repsol YPF and Chile's Empresa Nacional del Petroleo, or Enap.
Carrasco said about 400 companies will be under the microscope, but that number could double by the end of the year.
The companies can request revisions and even go to Ecuador's Supreme Court to contest any decision; Carrasco couldn't say when, if ever, the government would see any money back.
The tax investigations into the foreign oil and wireless companies focus on credits received from parent companies and the so-called "less back," which Carrasco has defined as virtual sales between units of the same company at a higher value than the actual value.
The audits on wireless providers and oil firms are expected to conclude by the end of the year.
-By Mercedes Alvaro, Dow Jones Newswires; 5939-9728-653; mercedes.alvaro@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
Posted to the site on 6th September 2007
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/25890.php